What Is The Source Of Your Happiness?

 

“But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God…”

—Psalm 68:3a

In order to experience genuine gratitude for what God has done on our behalf, we must first recognize how much we need His mercy, grace, and love.

Colonel W. Ian Thomas wrote in his book, The Saving Life of Christ, that once we understood what God has done for us through the death and resurrection of His Son, our sense of unrighteousness will usually become more intense. Thomas says that the concept of how sinful we are rises above the “height of our goodness.”

Thus, when we acknowledge God’s gift to us of a transformed life, we become all the more aware of how very much our lives needed transforming. This leads to two very different, yet two very important reactions.

On the one hand, we may, and should, feel horror at how truly sinful we are. Starting with the sin nature that we inherited from Adam through our parents and continuing with a long list of sins that we ourselves have committed, we have amassed quite a catalog of sins.

On the other hand, having recognized with a clearer spiritual vision how horribly sinful we are, we should feel enormous relief and overwhelming gratitude that God has paid the penalty for our sins by the shedding of Jesus’ precious blood. Moreover, we should rejoice at realizing that Christ’s resurrection has vouchsafed our place in heaven.

Eventually, our gratitude should soar above our horror. We should sing praises for this great outpouring of God’s love that has flooded into our lives.

The Psalmist has captured how we should feel in Psalm 68:3:

But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God;
may they be happy and joyful.

At the close of each day, as we take time to review what has happened and look to see God’s Hand on our lives in many small and large ways, let us feel extreme gratitude and rejoice!

 

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