B - Happiness: 100 Devotions to Brighten Your Day

Copyright 2019 by B&H Publishing Group

All rights reserved.

Printed in China.

978-1-5359-4593-6

Published by B&H Publishing Group

Nashville, Tennessee

All Scripture quotations are taken from the Christian Standard Bible, copyright 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible and CSB are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

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Introduction

B efore you even start reading, turn on the television. If you take the time to flip through a few of the channels, youll probably notice that there are few if any stories about happiness. We are a people that focus on the negative in the world. The news tells us the world is going to end on a daily basis. Television shows discuss heartbreaking conflicts that the characters seem to be found trapped. Even some of our childrens stories are engulfed in a sense of despair. We live in a world that seems to be focused on the concept of negativity. For some people, the glass is not half-empty. The glass is broken, incapable of ever coming back to a place where it can be fixed. For many of us, living in a world with this kind of focus can lead us to holding on to a mind-set of defeat. After all, how can one find victory in a world that has such a focus on defeat? How can we ever have hope in a world where hope seems pointless?

The point is that God did not call us to lose our joy. He does not want us to be a people that have been defeated by the ways of the world. He does not want us to be a people that refuse to see the happiness that He has given to us. Forget about whats on the television and look at your life. Count your blessings and realize all of the good that God has given you. Do not allow yourself to be overcome with sadness. Instead, take on a spirit of joy over the things that God has obviously given you as a blessing.

You probably have a loving family, or at least friends that love you like family. You have people that care for you and people that you so easily care for. You have people that aspire to give you love, and you have love that you are so willing to give to people. You have been forgiven for wrongs and because of that you have been able to forgive others. You have had moments of peace, harmony, and protection during moments of hardship. Whatever it may be, many of us have been blessed to the point where we can look out and be thankful over all of the things that God has done in our lives.

That is why this book is here. It is filled with little reminders that we are blessed; that we are given so much to the point where being happy and joyful are merely the by-products of all that God has given us. Even though the world may say we have nothing that should make us happy, with a little bit of thought, we quickly realize that God has proven that sentiment wrong. Read this book daily, and allow yourself to be reminded of the good in your life. Take the good that God has given you and respond with thankfulness, joy, and, above all, happiness.

Love Unmatched

For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

F inding love, in one form or another, has always been a priority. In todays time, however, it seems like the entire world is telling us to find love, or at least show it in some way. Our culture has different sites on the internet that point us to our matches based on questionnaires and algorithms designed to pair us with that special someone. People seek counseling in order to resolve past conflicts with their parents and how to better love them. Parents are encouraged to read book after book on how to love their child the right way, whatever that means. Even some of our favorite movies and television shows paint us a picture of the kind of love that we should find. We live in a world that seeks love... that desires to love and be loved, but there is a love that is so much more than what this world gives or could ever give.

That love comes from God. We are constantly chasing after love, and sometimes, we never realize that there has always been a love, unmatched, that has always been chasing after us. There is a love that has been on our heels since the day we were born, just waiting for us to turn around. There is a love that performed the impossible. There is a love that gave that which could not be given. There is a love that has loved you in spite of you and your blemishes; a love that only asks you to believe. This love is eternal. This love always has been and always will be. This love is Gods love.

It goes, without saying, that God has a love for us that we will never understand. God loved us so much that He gave His only Son for us. He gave His Son to die on a cross so that we may have eternal life through His Son. There is a love there that none of us will ever understand. We think about Christ and how He loved us enough to die for our sins, but we rarely ever think about God's love. We rarely ever think about the fact that God loved us so much that He gave His only Son for us so that we might live. When I think about the love of a parent, the level of God's love becomes unfathomable. It is something that we will never understand. An older pastor was once heard saying this statement, "Like Christ, there are people on this planet that I love enough to die for them, but there is not one of you on this entire planet that I love enough to give my child's life in exchange for yours."

When we have taken into account the level of love that God has for us, we cannot help but have a more positive outlook on our lives. Happiness and joy are some of the things that are simple by-products of the love that God has for us.

Let us thank God for this love; this love that cost everything, and yet, we pay nothing.

Broken Spirit Dries You Up

A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.

Proverbs 17:22

L ife has often been described as an adventure or a roller coaster. There are many highs and lows, many ups and downs, but it seems that we often get so focused on the lows and the downs that we cannot even begin to recognize the ups and the highs. We do not ever really take the time to recognize the good in our lives. Sometimes we get brought down in life. That is a fact of life that most of us have come to know, if not all of us. We cant turn off our brains. We can often fixate on the negative moments that the world can bring. Sometimes our hearts are left broken. Relationships end. Loss happens. Obstacles seem insurmountable. There are many things in the world that break us from time to time. There are things that bring us down, that cant be avoided. What do we do in order to deal with this? We find joy. We find the good. We focus on the silver lining of the dark clouds that seem to loom over us.

People all over the country have said time and time again that there is always a silver lining. Parents do their best to remind their children that there is always a bright side, and you know, theyre right. Sometimes when we have a dark cloud looming over us, we so often forget that the sun is right behind it. Even when looking in the mirror we may find a face that others find beautiful, but all we can see is the blemish that just wont seem to go away. Some of us may have a stellar performance at work or in school, and yet, within all of the success, there is a focus on the failure in ones performance. More often than not, we are surrounded by the things in which we can find positivity, but we choose to obsess on the negativity.

Simply put, we have to look at the positivity. We have to be willing to look past the negativity and do our best to find the joy in life. Even when its hard, we have to find the good in the bad. We have to be willing to find the peace hidden in the desperation. Though the hard times may come, we have to remember the moments that bring us the most joy. It may sound cliche, but we have to be willing to look at our glasses as half full instead of half empty. This is often the best thing you can do in order to live a life of happiness and joy.