How is Joy Different From Happiness?
Where does joy come from? Joy comes from the Lord. The only way to find joy is by seeking the Lord. When we seek first the kingdom of God, joy comes to be our companion along the journey of life. Throughout the Bible, we read God loves a joyful giver, count it all joy, rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. God wants us to be joyful. Joy can be a continual attitude when our lives are directed towards God. Joy is different from happiness. Happiness often comes from the world when life is going our way and we are filled with good and pleasing emotions. Joy comes from the Lord, when we are going God’s way and letting Him fill us with vision and purpose. When we are filled with joy, it often results in the emotion of happiness, but chasing the result will only make us lose the joy we are looking for.
You can’t find joy by looking for it; joy is a by-product of seeking God.
God doesn’t remove the troubles in life; He accompanies us in them. “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10b (NKJV) God didn’t send Goliath away from David; He didn’t take Daniel out of the lions’ den; and He didn’t take Paul off the boat that was about to be shipwrecked. He brought His presence to accompany them during their situations. Joy comes from having an awareness that God is with us and seeking joy in Him amidst the situations we face in life. The joy of the Lord becomes our strength when we focus on Him more than we focus on the storms around us.
Don’t let life cause you to take your focus off of God.
Remember, choosing joy is not the same as choosing happiness. Jesus wept, and yet He did not abandon Paul’s words to rejoice in the Lord always. He suffered great anxiety looking forward to the cross and great suffering while enduring the crucifiction, yet He was filled with the joy set before Him. Sadness, anxiety and depression are natural responses to the sin and brokenness of our world. When we experience these responses, we can be tempted to isolate ourselves from the troubles of the world. Instead, God wants us to draw near to Him in our times of trouble. The joy of the Lord is a gift God gives us to strengthen us in the face of life’s troubles.