Joy versus Positive Thinking

We must not confuse positive thinking with true joy.  A person who is not a Christian may experience temporary happiness due to favorable circumstances, but they can never know the joy of the Lord until they know the Lord in a personal way.  I speak from personal experience.  Even though I was raised in a Christian home, when I was a teenager, I got in with the wrong crowd to fit in, and I ended up backsliding against God.  During that time I lived as anyone who didn't know the Lord.   At first I thought it was fun to see how some unbelievers lived, and participate in the things of the world without any accountability to God or others.   The happiness I experienced all depended on my circumstances, whether I was accepted, invited to certain parties, and so on.   But after awhile, the drinking and the drugs (and cult involvement that went with the drug culture of that time) took a toll on my health and my mental well-being.  I became a border-line diabetic and I fell into a deep depression.  I couldn't sleep for the nightmares that haunted me.  So I began searching for a way out.

I began reading every positive thinking booking I could get my hands on, thinking that if I just learned how to think properly, I'd be free of the depression.  So I tried what they said.  I even prayed.  But nothing seemed to work.  I didn't know anything about oppression and that I had aligned myself with the devil and entered into his territory by delving into drugs and cult literature, which left me open to his deception and oppression.  I thank God that at that time my parents were earnestly praying for me, and made it possible for me to attend a God-centered Bible School that was one of the best schools at that time, with solid Biblical teaching. 

This is where I discovered what true joy is as compared to just positive thinking.  Here is where the Lord reached down to me and in His gentle and compassionate way drew me to Himself.  He changed my thoughts and my heart and He gave me a brand new start.  He filled me with the joy of my salvation, for He had delivered me from the great weight of my own sin and set me free from the bondage of my past.  But it would still take me many more years to discover the roots behind the depression that I would continue to struggle with, but never as so intensely when I wasn't living for Him.  

True joy and happiness is from the Lord and it comes from deep within, bubbling over in an unstoppable way.  It is usually accompanied by a deep and restful peace, knowing we are safe and all is well in our relationship with the Lord and others.  It is one of the most precious gifts of God, like a reward, for a job well done, and it is given just because He loves us, with no strings attached.  It comes from having a right attitude, and often follows heart-felt repentance, thankfulness and praise.  And the Lord will often surprise us with joy while we are in the midst of a difficult trial, and sometimes it will come at the end of a trial, like an added bonus. 

Joy does not necessarily happen because things are going well, we have money in the bank, our health is good, and all our relationships are thriving.  In fact, joy often happens when we are in the midst of great trials because we are no longer looking to others or to the things of this world to provide us with happiness.  When we struggle and have little, this is when we are the richest of all, because we realize God is enough and He is the source of all that matters in life.  Paul speaks of the Corinthians, how their joy was experienced during a deep trial: 

2Co 8:2   How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. 

As well, sometimes when we embrace the tenets of positive thinking, and we are lukewarm towards God and others at the same time, positive thinking will not deliver what we want it to because our hearts have to first be changed.   Joy comes from a heart that is right with God.  We think of David's prayer of repentance: 

Psa 51:2    Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

Psa 51:3    For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

Psa 51:4    Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

Psa 51:5    Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Psa 51:6    Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

Psa 51:7    Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Psa 51:8    Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

Psa 51:9    Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

Psa 51:10    Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Psa 51:11    Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

Psa 51:12    Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. 

Notice in verse 8, the request for joy and gladness follow David's repentance.  And in verse 12, David desires the restoration of the joy of his salvation, which would not be possible until he had truly repented.  In that same verse, David refers to God as having a "free spirit."  It's interesting that many times when I wasn't living for the Lord, I thought that I was a free spirit because I could do whatever I pleased and that was real freedom.  But I didn't realize the consequences of my actions, and true freedom can only come from the Lord.  And with that freedom, where He graciously and lovingly clears us of our offences against Him, there is a peace and joy that only He can give.   

Many people do not realize that positive thinking, by itself, can never give us the joy we truly seek.  Only God can give us that because He is the source of all that is truly good in this life. 

Jas 1:17    Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. 

God doesn’t just want us to seek after positive thinking, He wants us to experience the whole package, and this will result in joy.  Maybe today the journey seems long, and we can see the mountain ahead of us that seems so far away as we walk through the shadows in the valley to get there.  But once we reach our destination, we will know a joy unspeakable, and will know it will have been worth it all.