Happy and Blessed

 

How is happiness defined in the Bible? 

In the Old Testament, Jeremiah 17 tells us that “Blessed are those who trust the Lord.” He compares them to a tree planted by water not fearing the heat or drought since it will not cease to bear fruit. This is a simile of our lives when we trust the Lord through the hard and lean times knowing that God will provide and will pull us through. What does “producing fruit” mean? It tells that even when we go through rough times God can use them to bring spiritual growth in our lives.

In Psalms 1, happiness is said to belong to those who delight in the law of the Lord and study it daily. For us modern believers we have more than the Law – the first books of the Old Testament, to study. We have the entire canon of scripture – Old and New Testaments to study and learn more about God’s faithfulness and love. We have the Gospels that tell how Jesus lived love.

Christ in his Beatitudes in Luke 6 calls blessed people we don’t generally associate with happy. He tells the poor that they have the kingdom of God. He tells the hungry that they will be filled and those who weep will laugh. People in these conditions need to trust in the bigger picture that God will provide.

Then Christ predicts what will happen to many early Christians who follow Christ’s teachings. They will be excluded, reviled, and defamed. Yet, Christ says you are blessed when this happens. Instead of moaning and complaining they are to rejoice and even “leap for joy” – “for great is your reward in heaven.” You are blessed because you’re being treated the same as the prophets of old.

How did these early Christians survive and even consider themselves blessed? It was through trusting the Lord and meditating on God’s word.

Like the simile used in these Old Testament passages, we are to be rooted in Christ the living water who will give us spiritual fruits of growth. We will not wither under the heat of life, but will prosper.

This is where happiness and blessedness come.

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