“Searching for Sunshine”

The recent spell of gray days, with such numbing sameness from morning until night is starting to wear on a few of us.  At my house, we’re thinking about getting a therapeutic light to compensate for the lack of sunlight, and trying not to overcome the gloom by having “little treats.”  You know, the kind that have absolutely no nutritional or health benefits that we just love?  It might help (a little) to watch something on TV like a travel show featuring a beautiful tropical location, or you could tune in to follow your favorite basketball team as they win a game.  If they wait until the last few minutes to start scoring, you might even be able to claim your accelerated heart rate as an aerobic exercise.

In an effort to brighten up the general atmosphere, I went looking through my reference resource, and realized that humor, laughs, or jokes weren’t especially abundant in the Bible.  Several references in the Psalms intrigued me, though, because they spoke of God laughing.  Psalms 2:4, 37:13, and 59:8 all spoke of nations and leaders conspiring against God’s people, and God’s response is to laugh at their foolish belief in their own power.

Searching for “happy” led to some other Psalms, including 146 (please read it all — there are only 10 verses and it’s good for the spirit).  Verses 5-7: “Happy are those whose help is the God of  Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry.”   The term happy seems to mean more than just being in a good mood; rather, there’s more a sense of being grateful, blessed, and filled with the assurance of God’s love and care.

But then I went searching for “joy” and found that in the poetry of the Psalms this one little word shows up often, used in a number of circumstances.  Psalm 51 is described as a prayer for cleansing and pardon, and these verses have been part of our liturgy for a very long time:   “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.  Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.”  (v. 10-12)

Psalm 100 tells us to “make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth” and in Psalm 144 we learn that the people whose God is the Lord are happy and blessed.

So here we find happiness and joy on a level quite different from that of being cheerful or good natured, but instead these are deeper and more profound emotions that have a significant effect us.  Knowing that by God’s grace we are saved through faith, which is the gift of God, we live blessed and grateful lives, sharing this joy with all people.

Lift your spirit with I Am A Promise! https://youtu.be/mrCYDbEfsnU
Finding joy in the promises of God,

Your friend in Christ,

Mary Rogers