Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happiness is Believing


If you met someone who had recently placed their faith in Christ, what would you say to them?  The New Testament is actually full of answers to this question, but the first answer given chronologically is interesting.  Mary, who has surrendered her whole life in complete faith to God, went to visit her cousin Elizabeth.  Elizabeth, of course, had good news of her own.  After years without having a child and being past the age of child bearing she was having her own son.  Now when Mary came she made this statement in her greeting to her, “Blessed is she who believed.”  That is the same word that is used in the Beatitudes that is translated “Happy”. 

Happiness didn’t mean a perpetually easy time was ahead for Mary.  Joseph was planning to put her away.  She was going to be mocked as immoral.  She would face having a child out of wedlock and be kicked out of her good Jewish home.  That was what lay ahead for Mary if God hadn’t intervened with Joseph.  Still, word was out that Mary was pregnant out of wedlock and that would follow her for years in that small community.  In the temple, when Jesus was presented two months after His birth, Simeon, a man of great faith, said to Mary regarding Jesus, “A sword will pierce through your own soul also.” 

This was no giddy happiness that comes from winning a blue ribbon at the state fair.  This was happiness of a deeper and richer kind.  It was the quiet happiness of a great relationship.  It was all the comfort and peace and hope that such a relationship brings to our lives.  It was an assurance of something that would last even beyond this life.  It would prove to be a happiness that would have to endure pain and only deepen in the doing so.  That was the happiness that came from believing God’s promise to her when the angel said, “Rejoice, Mary, God fills you with His grace and you find favor with Him.”  She believed the message and Elizabeth said, “Happy are you who believed.”  That is what we can say to each new believer.  It is a true statement. 

Let us consider these fitting words by Philip Doddridge.  “O happy day that fixed my choice on Thee, my Savior and my God! Well may this glowing heart rejoice, and tell its raptures all abroad.  Happy day, happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away!  He taught me how to watch and pray, and live rejoicing every day.  Happy day, happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away.”  They sang this song the night I was saved.  It was a happy day!  
 
 
Visit my website at www.davidccraig.net for inspiring Christian books.  Coming this month is my newest book Taking Care of Joe.  This is the story of a caregiver for an Alzheimer’s patient.  See how God adds His grace in the face of this horrible disease and how living a life of love is living a life NOT interrupted.  You may also find some of my selected daily devotions at FEBC.org.  FEBC is a vital missionary outreach to many countries that are closed to traditional missionary work. 
 

No comments:

Post a Comment