Are you happy? Another question, are you a happy Christian? I think often about the billboards that we all carry around with us. You might be thinking what billboard is the preacher writing about today? I’m talking about the billboard of your face. When the people that you meet and interact with see you, what are you advertising? Is there something different about you than most others they have met? There should be. We are to be a light to a lost world. And let’s face it, having Jesus is the greatest thing a person can ever have and we, God’s people, ought to try and shine bright.
As a new Christian, I heard a Sunday School teacher say, “It takes more muscles in the face to frown than to smile, so just be lazy and smile.” I don’t know if the teacher was accurate, but I do know that smiling and having a happy disposition is easily noticed by others. For the last couple of days, Deb and I have spent time with some life-long friends that we don’t see very often. We shared a house on the top of a mountain in Gatlinburg, TN. It was a glorious view watching the sun come up over the mountains and talking on the deck in the evening before retiring for the night. We went shopping, walking both sides of the main drag on Thursday. We walked by a man handing out gospel tracts and the one he was giving was “Smile, God loves You.” As our group walked by, I was at the end of the group. He made eye contact with me and said, “I know where you got that smile.” I responded with a big grin and thanked him for his love for Jesus. When he said those seven words to me, it made my day start out great. Throughout the day, I would flash back to those words, “I know where you got that smile.” I know there have been many days when my mind was on pressing matters, and I did not use my billboard to be effective in sharing my Jesus. Perhaps I’d be scowling or frowning. But Thursday, I used my billboard right.
How do we develop into people that are happy? There would be a thousand authors with a thousand ideas about it, but for the Christian, why not just go to the source. Go to the Lord. He created us to be people with joy. Even in the midst of suffering and tragedy we can have joy and happiness. The Lord writes to us in Psalm 1 about the “Blessed Man.” The word man certainly includes women. All of us can be happy people. It takes obedience on our part to make it happen though. Without obedience, happiness doesn’t manifest itself. Many of the Christians I’ve met in close to fifty years have been happy. So, what does the Lord tell us in Psalm 1? He gives us five things in verses 1 & 2.
- Don’t “walk in the counsel of the ungodly.” Don’t follow the advice of the unsaved!
- Don’t “stand in the way of sinners.” Don’t hang out in places that promote sin!
- Don’t “sit in the seat of the scornful.” Don’t pal around with those that are constantly critical of others and God’s word. They are contemptuous people.
- Do, “delight in the law of the Lord.” Hang out with the Bible and those that are like minded.
- Do, “meditate day and night.” We meditate in the law of the Lord. We think about what we have read and like a cow or sheep we chew on the cud over and over seeking to get everything we can from our reading of the Bible.
Let’s make a deal with each other. Starting now, we will use our faces and our words to show Jesus to a lost and hurting world. When they ask us about our joy, the doors just fly open to share the gospel. You can let them know where you got that smile from.