Does God Want You to Be Happy?

I was recently reading something that said it is God’s will that I experience happiness in my life. I took the time to reflect on that for a few minutes. I’ve been lucky that I’ve experienced mostly happiness over my lifetime, so this wasn’t too difficult to believe. However, one would think about this further and possibly question this statement. After all, there is so much unhappiness in this world. There is a global pandemic, crime and terror is on the increase, and generally, especially in the United States, people are more stressed and unhappy than ever before. So is this God’s way of showing who’s boss, and is this possibly His will instead of happiness?

Regardless of all the negativity we hear about, and some may experience, I strongly believe God wants us all to be happy. Here are some Bible quotes that back this up. Ecclestiastes 3:12-13 says, “so I concluded there is NLT. Psalm 35:27 says that the Lord delights and takes pleasure in the well-being, success, and prosperity of His servant.  Galatians 5:22-23 lists all of the fruits of the spirit. One of those is joy which is the root of happiness. Since God’s spirit lives in you, joy and happiness are an inherent part of your being! I don’t think God would include joy as one of those fruits if He didn’t want you to experience it.

I do understand that we all face situations and times in our lives that are not happy. However, God did say we would face trials. What some people miss when these occur is that God allows these trials to occur in order to help us grow. And I’ve learned that growth through these difficult and unhappy circumstances ultimately brings more happiness into my life!

To conclude, I will share what I Thessalonians 5:16-18 says to Rejoice always, pray continually, and be thankful in all circumstances, and that this is God’s will for you. When it says it’s God’s will that means it’s His intention. He created us with a happy, rewarding life in mind, even though He knew parts of this life would be difficult for us. The information I’m presenting here is a bit simplified. However, I believe some of you that read this may think that happiness is not what God intended for you in this life. I am hoping these verses prove that it is indeed His will that you ARE happy far more often than not. God is on your side, and your happiness brings Him happiness. And I can’t think of anything better than putting a smile on His face. Enjoy the blessings 🙂

Keep Your Vibration High by Taking Your Thoughts Captive

I’ve written often about the concept of vibration on this site. Basically, your vibration is the level of your emotional state. That makes a difference because your external circumstances reflect what your internal vibration is. When your vibration is high, with emotions like love, joy, gratitude, and peace, you experience joyful circumstances and are given more things to be thankful for. When your vibration is low, with emotions like doubt, fear, anger, etc., you are often faced with circumstances that bring about more of those negative emotions. I realize this truth more every day, as there are countless Bible verses to back this up, and I see it play out in my life experience.

It’s a simple formula. Instead of trying to control the circumstances in life (which is very difficult to do), we are solely responsible for controlling our inner state of being. I find this very comforting since I have full control of my inner state. I think you should find this very comforting too. The problem is that it is sometimes easier said than done. Many people have learned this same fact. Yet it is often difficult to control their emotions. As much as I’ve learned and shared about this regularly, I feel your pain and often have that same difficulty. Instead of trying to control my own state of being, I allow people or circumstances to dictate how I feel. It happens much less than it used to, but I am still learning in this area as well.

So how does one best control their emotional vibration and bring it to a level that will allow the manifestation of the ideal life? There are plenty of suggestions out there. One of the best I’ve been taught is from Esther Hicks. If you want to learn about the Law of Attraction and how to apply it, she would be one of my first recommendations. I have learned so much from her that has enhanced the quality of my life. She has a ton of videos on YouTube, as well as a couple of great books too. In one of those books, she shares the concept of the emotional guidance scale. At the top of the scale are the highest emotions, such as the ones I mentioned earlier. At the bottom of the scale are the lowest emotions, also mentioned above. She suggests using this scale as a guide. The recommendation is to have regular check-ins with yourself to see where you stand on the emotional scale. She then challenges you to deliberately think thoughts that bring you higher and higher on the scale until you are in the highest emotional state. One of the most important suggestions is to take things one step at a time, and not try to go from a lower emotional state immediately to the highest. That could be frustrating and end up defeating the whole process. For example, there are 22 emotions listed from lowest to highest. If I am at level 7 for example, which is contentment, instead of going directly to number 1, I should go to level 6 which is hopefulness, then to 5 which is optimism, and eventually work myself up to the highest emotions. Even if I am much lower on the scale, this is very helpful. For example, if I am feeling frustration/irritation which is level 10, it’s almost impossible to start feeling joy immediately. However, if I go up just one level, which is pessimism. Pessimism is still a negative emotion, but it’s better than being frustrated, so I am already feeling a little better than I was. Then I think thoughts that move me up to the next level which is boredom, and so on, until my emotional state has gone from bad to good, to awesome. Here is an excellent article I found that further explains and helps practice the process.

This process has been very helpful to me. However, like I mentioned before, it is sometimes more easily said than done. Sometimes, especially if I am lower on the emotional scale, it takes a long time to start feeling the higher emotions. That sometimes leads me to give up and I end up further down the list again by getting frustrated. Recently, I found other information that I believe is even more helpful than what I mentioned above. Now I am not going to argue with what Esther Hicks says. She is extremely successful, as she has used the Law of Attraction to bring major blessing into her life, and into the lives of millions of others. Her suggestion is excellent, and I know from experience that it works. However, what I am about to share has worked even better for me, and it has taken away the sometimes long and frustrating process of gradually working my way up the emotional scale.

The only problem with what I am about to share is that I don’t remember where I found this excellent information. I do so much reading and research on this topic, that I sometimes don’t save my sources. I cannot properly cite where I found this wonderful information. I can simply tell you that I can’t take credit for creating this idea myself. However, I can also tell that you that it is incredibly powerful, and it has really helped me increase my emotional state, and its resulting manifestations. Here it is… instead of starting from the emotion you are currently feeling and working your way up to the highest emotions, consider this… those highest emotions of love, joy, peace, and gratitude are your natural state! I recently wrote an article about that topic that you can check out here. Remember that the spirit of God lives in you. And the fruits of the spirit are those emotions I just mentioned. Love, joy, and peace are what you naturally are! The only reason you are not feeling that way all the time is because you allow other emotions to block those out. Here’s an illustration. I live outside of Buffalo, New York. This city is known for its snow (over 90 inches or about 250cm per year). From November to April we almost never see the sun. However, it doesn’t mean the sun is not there. The sun is still shining. We just don’t see it because there are clouds, and snowflakes that get in the way and prevent us from experiencing the light. (just for the record… from June through October the sun shines regularly here, and the weather is more beautiful than in many other places).  It’s the same with our emotions. The light of God is always there, right with us. If you are not seeing it and feeling negative emotions, it isn’t because that light of love and joy has disappeared. It’s just that the negative clouds and darkness are blocking the light and the corresponding positive emotions.

2 Corinthians 10:5 says that we “take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ.” That means we watch our thoughts to make sure they line up with the truth of what Jesus says. In fact, another version says that we take it a step further, and “We capture, like prisoners of war, every thought and insist that it bow in obedience to the Anointed One.” Here’s how I use this with what I was discussing earlier. I first reflect on who I am. I am a child of God, created in His image. I have all of His attributes. For that reason, I reflect on the fact that love, joy, peace, and gratitude (the highest emotional vibrations) are my natural state. In fact, I Thessalonians says they are God’s will for my life. In other words, God created me and you with the intention that we would live in love, joy, and peace, and have plenty of reasons to be thankful. When I get into this mode of thinking, I am starting off with a bright and clear sunny day. I am already feeling amazing! Now, I deliberately focus on my thoughts. If any clouds or raindrops come in, I cast them out. If they persist, I speak against them, reminding myself again that my natural state is love and joy.

I have found that this way of thinking and living is highly effective. As I start with my focus feeling and believing on the highest emotions, those positive manifestations begin to occur, and even begin to multiply! Then it gets even easier to stay in that high vibration. Instead of living in dark and cloudy Buffalo, I am living in bright and sunny Los Angeles! And even if there is some temporary smog that blocks the sun, if I continue to live in this state, it eventually burns off and becomes perfectly sunny and clear. I will say this though… the more you live in this higher vibration and continue to take your thoughts captive to maintain this high emotional level, the smog, clouds, and even storms tend to disappear. Even if they don’t completely go away (God says we will ultimately face trials in our lives) you can still deal with them on a much higher level and find positive solutions much quicker and easier.

Remember, you were created to live joyfully and lovingly. That is who you are. When you make the effort to control your thoughts and emotions to ensure you are thinking those kinds of thoughts, you will end up living those kinds of circumstances. The great thing about it is that it’s all in your control. So take that control and enjoy the blessings 🙂

What is Love, Anyway?

OK, I will start by apologizing if any of you now can’t stop singing the 80s song with the above title. That’s been the case for me ever since I thought of the title for this article 🙂 Anyway, as we approach Valentines Day, I thought this would be an appropriate topic to discuss.

Every Valentines Day, we hear plenty about the topic of love. But what is love, really? We hear that God is love. If you read the Bible, you will find plenty of definitions of what love is. However, the definition of love I will share here may not be one of the exact definitions you will find in the Bible, but instead is the most helpful definition for me.

The most relevant and helpful definition of love I have ever found is one that comes from Eckhart Tolle in his classic book, “The Power of Now.” It’s an incredible book that I highly recommend. Honestly, it’s not the easiest book to read, and I’ve had to go through it a few times. However, it is well worth it. At one point in the book, he describes love as simply seeing God in someone or something. When you think about this definition, it makes total sense. The spirit of God is within you. It is within everyone. When you “love” someone, in essence, you are acknowledging and appreciate that fact. When you say “I love you” you are in essence saying, “I see and appreciate the spirit of God in you.” This has really helped me with self-love. Throughout most of my life, I have struggled to love myself. I have learned to appreciate who I am, but when I think of myself as someone created in the image of God, and someone who is a temple of God’s spirit, I am practicing the healthiest form of self-love!

Since I’ve began seeing love in this way, I notice an interesting thing that happens. The level of love in my life increases! That’s because when you focus on something mentally, you see more of it in the physical world. When I see myself and others as the loving energy of God, I experience more of it. This type of focus also enables you to have greater impacts on those around you. One reason for that is that you are increasing the “love energy” in your world. The Bible says God is love. And God is the limitless energy in and around everyone. When you see others as shining lights of God’s love, you impact that energy in a positive way, and that positive energy spreads further and further. Watch how simple this is…. you can impact countless people (and yourself since you are part of this great energy too) simply by controlling your thoughts and focusing on the spirit of God that lives in everyone and seeing them as being created in His image. That’s it! Now, I know there are actions we need to take to demonstrate love. However, when you are in this state of mind, the ideas for those actions seem to come automatically. Then people are really impacted by your attitude of love.

You may think I’m getting a bit technical here, but I believe it is very simple. For me, when I define love as seeing God in myself and others, the positive energy in and around me dramatically increases. Not only does it add to my joy, but it adds love, joy, peace, and all other positive emotions to those around me. The same is true for you. I challenge you to see others as the love of God and as beings in His image. I am confident that your attitude about them will be more positive, and it will come back at you in a major positive way as well. I believe that’s a life we can all love. Happy Valentines Day!

You Can Quickly Realize Your Heart’s Desire

What would you say your greatest desire is today? I’m sure it’s a question you can answer quickly and easily. We all have things in life that we desire. That’s a good thing. We should get excited to think about our greatest desires. The problem is that sometimes people actually become disappointed and depressed when discussing their greatest desires. That’s because they focus on the fact that they don’t have it yet. I certainly understand because I’ve been there myself. However, what if I told you there’s a way to see your desires realized sooner than later?

I will start by saying that sometimes God purposely makes us wait for our greatest desires to be realized. That could be because the timing isn’t right, or possibly because He has something even better in store for us. However, there are many times where I believe we can make the decision that helps speed up the process. I believe often times God is waiting for us to make that decision.

I was doing a Bible devotion recently and came across a verse I’ve read many times. However, it never really got my attention this way. The verse is Psalm 37:4. It says “take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Another version says to find your delight in the Lord. Then He will give you everything your heart really wants. My favorite translation sums it up perfectly…seek your happiness in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.

For me, the key is in that last translation. We as humans tend to seek our happiness from external things. In some ways, there is nothing wrong with that. God has created things on this earth for us to enjoy. I love my family and other things like sports, music, oceans, etc. The problem with that is that all of those “things” can somehow disappoint. My favorite sports team lose. Sometimes the ocean gets rough and destructive. Sometimes the people in my life that I love disappoint me. The bottom line is that, no matter how much I love some people and things in my life, they are not perfect. They cannot always guarantee happiness. On the other hand, when I put my trust and joy in the Lord, He never disappoints. Ever!

There lies the key to quickly realizing your heart’s desires. First and foremost, seek your happiness in God. Spend time in His presence. I recently wrote an article about increasing your joy in life. I wrote that the key to increasing your joy is increasing the amount of time you spend recognizing and enjoying God’s presence. This Bible verse is saying the same thing. When we truly seek and enjoy the presence of God, our joy increases. And God promises that when we do that, He will give us the desires of our heart. And here’s another great thing about this. I believe that when we spend quality time in God’s presence, our desires line up with His will. And when your goals and desires line up with His will, that’s when prayers are often answered sooner than later. God also promises that when we seek Him first, all things are added unto us. We don’t have to worry about how we will get things. We are already taken care of as long as we focus on God first.

Once again I will say that I believe your greatest desires can be realized quickly. The dictionary definition of delight is to take pleasure in or to give joy or satisfaction to. When you take pleasure in what God has already done for you, and you experience joy and satisfaction in spending time with Him, He will bless you! Not only will your greatest desires be realized, but I believe God will bless you way above and beyond what you would even expect. So whenever you can, instead of seeking joy and satisfaction in the external things, seek them in His presence instead. I firmly believe you will see your desires realized sooner than later. Enjoy the blessings 🙂

A Quick and Easy Way to Increase Your Joy

If you haven’t already noticed, there seems to be a severe lack of joy in today’s world. In some ways, it’s understandable. There is a global pandemic going on that has really stood this world on its head. Jobs have been lost, as well as the ability to socialize and do things that we are so used to doing. I will say though, that this drought of joy has been happening since well before the pandemic. In many cases and many places, people just aren’t happy.

Why is this the case? And what can we do about it? I believe I have a fairly simple solution. You may even think I am oversimplifying this, but I don’t believe I am. Just hear (or should I say read) me out, and you may ultimately see that what I am saying makes sense. Hopefully, especially if you’ve been lacking joy in your life, you can see that it’s very easy to get it back.

The words I share with you are not my own. They come from the Bible, and Psalm 16:11. The verse says, “in your presence is fullness of joy.” One version says “your presence fills me with joy and brings me pleasure forever.” That’s it. What’s the way to true joy? Simply remaining in the presence of God.

As I reflected on this, I found several examples of its truth. First, it shows why meditation and prayer are so powerful. When you meditate, you are deliberately bringing yourself and keeping yourself in the presence of God. In prayer, you are actually communicating with that presence. I was also reminded of this by some powerful memories. When I was in my mid-20s, I was the co-leader of a youth group in my church. We often had retreat weekends. These times were amazing, and I experienced emotional highs that would carry over for days after these events were over. That’s because, for the entire weekend, myself and a group of about 40 people were all completely focused on the presence of God. When you have a group like that where everyone is completely focused on God, deep, positive emotions run even higher. After those retreats, I felt like I could accomplish anything because I was so aware and confident of God’s presence.

As I reflected on this, I was reminded that I don’t need a retreat weekend to experience this same joy that being in God’s presence creates. I can take the time at any part of the day just to reflect on God’s presence. The more I do this, the more comfort and joy I feel. The same is true for you. If you are lacking joy or looking for more of it in your life, simply seeking the presence of God as often as possible can enable you to experience that joy. I understand that even being close to God doesn’t guarantee all negative situations will magically disappear. Sometimes God brings trials and difficulty into our lives for a reason. However, I can tell you from experience that if you increase the amount of time you spend in God’s presence and deliberately focus on Him and His wonderful love and promises, you will also increase the amount of joy in your life. As I look back I see that the times of greatest joy throughout my life were also the times where I was closest to God and consistently focusing on and living in His presence.

The great thing about this is that, as your level of joy increases, it’s contagious! As your joy level and positive energy increases, it positively affects the energy around you. That means as you are more joyful, it automatically brings greater joy to those around you! You don’t have to say or do a thing. It just happens. I see it in my own life all the time. If I am down and in a negative mood, I seem to get the same negative emotions back from everyone. However, when my joy and overall vibration is positive, I receive so much positivity and joy from other people. They enjoy my company and want to be with me. They laugh at my stupid jokes. They are willing to go out of their way to do things for me. All kinds of positive things happen. And it’s simply because my level of joy is at a high level. And that is a result of quality time spent in the presence of God.

Yes, I believe it is that simple. Again, spending as much time as possible in God’s presence won’t automatically make all of your problems go away. However, it will bring your joy to such a high level that you will look at those problems differently. You will be much less likely to allow them to depress you and instead will help you find the solutions that will ultimately help them disappear much more easily. More importantly, you will enjoy the great things in life so much more, and add a great deal of joy that this world desperately needs. Enjoy the blessings 🙂

Please Forgive Me For Being Selfish

Happy New Year to all of my faithful readers! As I write this, it is the first week of February, and this is my first post of 2021. In fact, it’s my first post in several months. I really have no excuses for my lack of writing. No major stressful situations going on, even though that potential certainly exists in today’s world. I can’t even say it’s because I can’t think of anything to write because there is plenty to talk about, especially for what I usually write about.

So why haven’t I been writing? As I thought and prayed about this, I was convicted in a major way. I realized it’s because I am just being selfish. My writing gap comes at a time where my readership on this site has grown to the highest level than I’ve ever had. I’ve also received many compliments about how these articles have been a great help to some people. So why stop writing now? I think it happened for several reasons. One is that I still have a tendency to let doubt creep in. I think thoughts like, how could anything I have to say positively affect people? No one cares what I have to say. Can I really help anyone? I not only allow those thoughts in but act on them by procrastinating on my writing instead of listening to God’s voice who says that, since what I have to say is coming from Him, it can have great impacts on people.

I also tend to let laziness get in the way. I do not function well in the cold dark days of winter in Western New York and tend to get a bit down emotionally during these months. Still, I need to stop using that as an excuse and stay active. Writing is one of the ways I can do that.

So once again I will apologize for being selfish. Perhaps some people don’t think my writing is good or helpful. Perhaps it is difficult to become motivated to write. However, I feel like God is telling something. I regularly ask Him how I can be used to make a difference in this world while I am here. I believe He is reminding me to use the great knowledge He has taught me, and make myself available for Him to use me as a vessel to communicate His love, peace, and truth. It’s not up to me to decide whether I am worthy or good enough for a task. It’s just a matter of being obedient. So now I am getting my typing fingers ready, and seeking to communicate what He wants me to say. I am so sorry to keep you waiting. More to come very soon 🙂