Happy Now Or Happy Later?

Happiness can be elusive. Many times there does not seem to be enough for now and later.

Perhaps we think we must sacrifice present happiness for future happiness or vice versa. Or we sacrifice for someone else's future happiness. It gets complicated.

There is nothing like going to a funeral of a loved one. It gets you thinking about these things. Future happiness gets stretched. Is it 10 years from now... 20... Retirement... Then what about those moments and years after we take our last breath?

It is very possible that we could say 'eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we will die.' then spend many long years, or eternity, very very unhappy. Or we can always postpone our happiness for a sense of security only to find out later we just don't know how to love life.

Faith is the only way i have discovered to have both. God's grace enables me to have joy in the midst of sacrifice. To have and give hope when there seems to only be chaos.

I want the people I love to be happy now and later. I want them to have joy ten years from now and ten thousand years from now. So I promote faith, forgiveness and intimacy with God through knowing Christ.

If I knew a better way I would promote that but I remain convinced that faith sees farther ahead than anything else. Faith is what we were made for. God is the best friend anyone of us can have and the best legacy anyone of us can leave behind.

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Happiness Is Not Mandatory

Happiness is not mandatory for the grace believer. Perhaps we think because we have been given so much we should be happy. Happiness can become some sort of badge of success or confirmation of blessing in some circles.

Just to put it out there... I have great joy but I am not always happy. Happiness is not my 'goal' in life.

I don't want to counsel people toward happiness either. I want to communicate the profitability and sensibility of faith even if it is just by living it out in front of them. I want to connect with people... sit where they sit and share their joy or sadness as someone who is believing with them or even for them if they have little capacity in the moment.

"The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light." - Romans 13:12 KJV

"For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." - Galatians 3:27 KJV

"And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." - Ephesians 4:24 KJV

"Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." - Ephesians 6:11 KJV

"And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness." - Colossians 3:14 KJV

Forget putting on a happy face... put on Jesus Christ. Then even our mood can be dictated by the mind of Christ as we walk in the Spirit.

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