100 Days with Jesus -- Do You Know the Difference Between Happiness and Joy?

Day 50
Do you know the difference between happiness and joy? That was the subject of our lesson in Sunday school yesterday and it got me to thinking. Aren’t they both similar emotions? Different words for the same feelings? But I discovered there is certainly a difference.

Happiness comes and goes. It’s an emotional state based on things that are happening in our life. It’s fleeting and is based on how we feel about ourselves or how we think others feel about us. So what’s joy? Joy is the deep rooted knowledge that no matter what happens in life, we will be OK. It’s more than a passing emotion or a feeling. It’s stable and constant but more important is what it’s not. It’s not based on us. It’s based on our walk with God. There’s nothing we can do to be happy all the time but we can have a steady state of joy, even when the worst things in life happen – if that joy is based on the knowledge that we do not walk through life alone but rather with a God that’s greater than us. There’s a world of comfort in that knowledge. I know it to be true from my life’s experience. I’m definitely not happy all the time. But when I have had to face the worst that life has to throw at me so far, I have been grateful that I could still find joy in life, even though it was hard some days. During this holiday season, I hope that you will find joy that will take you past Christmas and beyond.