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Good Morning! If your happy and you know it say "AMEN"! If you happy and you know it say "AMEN"! If your happy and you know it then your life will surely show it, it your happy and you know it say "AMEN"!

This song has an amazing truth behind it. That truth is that your happiness should show forth in your behavior, and that is true. But to be honest, God is looking for much more than that from those whose penalty He has paid at Calvary.

Of course, God wants us happy. But not nearly as much as he wants us righteous. You see, happiness is dependant upon one thing: our HAPPENINGS! So with that truth in mind than our life will only show we are happy when our happenings are cooperating.

That is not His wish. His wish is that our righteousness is determined by our relationship. This children's song would be better sang, "if your saved and you know it then you life will surely show it, if your saved and you know it say 'AMEN!'"

The Christian life is not a life of fortunate situations after fortunate situations that allow us to be happy all the time. The adage is that if we are happy all the time that others will want to embrace this great gospel that leads to happiness.

Rather, the Christian life is a lifestyle of necessary persecution (if we are living IN Christ) that is responded to properly (that is to say righteously) so that others will be drawn unto Him.

Whenever you see the word righteousness in the Bible you must understand that it has two meanings. For there is a form of righteousness that is tied to our two benefits of salvation. There is a righteousness tied to our justification and there is a righteousness tied to our sanctification. The Bible tells us that all our righteousnessess are as filthy rags. That is referring to our justification. We cannot be justified (or to be made right) from our sin by doing anything in our own power. That is a waste rag.

However, the Bible also tells us that we should live righteously and godly in this present world. Does this mean we should live like a wasted rag? NO! Of course not! This righteousness is tied to our sanctification (or, to be more right). The righteousness of our sanctification is also not dependant upon us doing anything in our own power, for that is self righteousness. Self righteousness is me doing more right--myself! That's not a wasted rag, that is lukewarm Christianity and it makes God spew!

So with that in mind we can see that the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is a call to righteousness. "Getting saved", not by what you do, but what He does AND "getting by", not by what you do, but by what He does through you!

But that is not the case with many of us, especially in the face of adversity or UNHAPPY circumstances. For many Christians, it takes very little in the way of difficulty to steal our happiness, for our happenings are unfortunate. That's just the way it's going to be. I don't need happiness, I need the fruit of the Spirit joy. Happiness, my friends, comes and goes, but joy lasts forever.

No matter the difficulty of my day, I may not be happy, but I can still have joy flowing down in my heart! Where? Down in my heart to stay!

Things get tough, every day, sometimes all day. How does it affect your happiness? How bout we "sing a new song"? "Since Jesus came". What would that song be? How about a Song (Psalm) of David, it goes something like this:

A PRAYER FOR TODAY: Today's prayer should be a silent meditation on your inward dissatisfaction with where your own efforts have taken you in life and then upon recognizing how emotionally dependant we have become on our happenings, let's cry out to God in our own words, asking for Him to take a greater role in our lives. This prayer and cooperation with the Spirit is sure to bring us a greater contentment.

A QUESTION FOR TODAY'S MEDITATION: "Am I consistently yielding to the Spirit of longsuffering, or am I quick tempered when faced with the weaknessess of others." If you are quick tempered with others, what part of your walk with the Lord so weak that you are unable to repress that negative emotion?