May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13, NIV).
I have a naturally cheerful disposition. My dad told me I was born smiling! I don’t know about that, but throughout my life people have questioned how I can be so happy – some have questioned whether that happiness is sincere.
The truth is, in my younger years, I sometimes hid beneath my happy exterior when I was actually miserable on the inside. I wanted people to like me and believed in the saying, “Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and you cry alone.”
After I came to know the Lord, I discovered there was more to being happy than a smiling face and a cheerful exterior. I discovered that, laughing or crying, I was never alone. I found a friend with whom no pretenses were necessary because He loved me unconditionally. And in that acceptance, I found a kind of inner joy that strengthened me and allowed me to be genuine with others – and to be genuinely happy.
There is a song that says, “This happy face that I’m wearing, you know Jesus put it there to stay. And since the world didn’t give it to me, I said the world can’t take it away.”
What is it in your life right now that’s stealing your joy? What is that thing, that person, that situation, that memory of which you cannot let go that will not allow you to experience joy?
If our hope and trust is in the world, happiness will come and go, depending on our circum-stances – and may elude us altogether. But if our hope is in the Lord, even though hard times will come and there will be times of sorrow and pain, there’s an inner joy that can’t be corrupted by whatever may be taking place in the world around us.
Our God is a God of great joy, and His joy is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10).
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