{"id":5036,"date":"2020-08-21T00:25:35","date_gmt":"2020-08-21T00:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/?p=5036"},"modified":"2021-08-17T14:50:23","modified_gmt":"2021-08-17T19:50:23","slug":"joy-and-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/21\/joy-and-happiness\/","title":{"rendered":"Joy and Happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.5.6″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.5.6″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.5.6″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.5.6″ _module_preset=”default”]

\u00a0 \u00a0The world is looking for joy, happiness and gladness.\u00a0 Why do you think there is so little joy in peoples\u2019 lives?\u00a0 Maybe you are struggling under depression, sadness and sorrow and longing for some joy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0The middle book of the Bible is the book of Psalms or the Book of Praises.\u00a0 It is interesting to note that the world as soon as Adam and Eve were sent out of the Garden of Eden became filled with thoughts and practices of vengeance.\u00a0 In fact in the fourth chaper of Genesis, a man named Lamech sang a song that describes the lives and thoughts of many who are looking for some gladness in life.\u00a0 He said, \u201cI have killed a man for wounding me, even a man for wounding me, even a young man for hurting me.\u00a0 If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, then Lamech will be avenged seventy seven fold.\u201d\u00a0 This thought of vengeance is viewed as necessary to sports, to politics, and among other areas of life.\u00a0 Anything you can imagine often resorts to vengeance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0But God said, \u201cVengeance is mine, I will repay says the Lord.\u201d\u00a0 This implies that God says vengeance belongs to Him.\u00a0 You leave that to Me and give yourselves to enjoying the good life I have set for you; for now and for eternity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Look with me at the Bible and take some notes.\u00a0 Before you come to the middle of the Bible, the Book of Psalms, you will find the word \u201cjoy\u201d appears about 29 times.\u00a0 You will find the word \u201cjoyful\u201d appears about four times.\u00a0 You will find the word \u201cglad\u201d appears about eleven times and the word gladness about seven times.\u00a0 The word gladly does not appear at all before the book of Psalms<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0In the Book of Psalms you find that the word \u201cjoy\u201d appears thirty six times and after that over one hundred times.\u00a0 Remember it appears only twenty nine times before.\u00a0 The word \u201cjoyful\u201d appears ten times in the book of Psalms and another twelve times after the Psalms.\u00a0 Remember it appears only four times before the book of Psalms.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Why is this?\u00a0 The answer is found in the very first Psalm, \u201cBlessed is the man\u2026\u201d\u00a0 The word that is translated \u201cblessed\u201d in this passage is the word for \u201chappy.\u201d\u00a0 The Psalms talk about a happy man. \u00a0 In the New Testament we find that these words in the Psalms are the words of Jesus.\u00a0 (Luke 24:44, Colssians 3:17)\u00a0 He was the Happy or Joyful Man.\u00a0 The Bible even tells us that He endured the cross for His people and He was joyful in doing this.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Maybe you are looking for joy and happiness in the wrong place.\u00a0 You may be looking for it in vengeance or in sex, drugs or wealth.\u00a0 These all end up in death, despair and agony.\u00a0 But the bible teaches us that joy comes in confessing that you have been rebellious against God and Jesus.\u00a0 You have followed your own word and the words of men.\u00a0 But the words of Christ are the words of the One who in great wisdom created the universe.\u00a0 Do you know Him?\u00a0 If you know Him you will need to know what He has to say about how to live in this world that He created.\u00a0 Can we talk about this?\u00a0 Here alone are the words by which people over the years have found joy though having very little of what we often think gives us joy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Psalm 37:16 says, \u201cA little that a righteous man has is far better than the riches of many wicked.\u201d\u00a0 God said to Joshua, \u201cThis book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do all that is written in it.\u00a0 For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.\u201d<\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0The world is looking for joy, happiness and gladness.\u00a0 Why do you think there is so little joy in peoples\u2019 lives?\u00a0 Maybe you are struggling under depression, sadness and sorrow and longing for some joy. \u00a0 \u00a0The middle book of the Bible is the book of Psalms or the Book of Praises.\u00a0 It is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[135],"tags":[166,165,142,164],"class_list":["post-5036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-happiness","tag-joy","tag-prayer","tag-psalms"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5036"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6310,"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5036\/revisions\/6310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}