Today's Devotional

April 29, 2005

Subject:  Be Right And Be Happy

1 Peter 3:13 - 14 "And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?  But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;"

Remember that feeling you used to have in elementary school when the teacher asked a question and you knew you had the answer?  There may have been other hands in the air and maybe even some others missed it prior to you, but you knew you had the correct one.  Finally the teacher called on you and you were the star for a minute.  What exhilaration.  Well as you got older perhaps there were other issues in life where you had the same feeling.  However at this point the issues seemed more monumental.  Maybe you were in court and legal counsel was attempting to prove that you did something that you knew that you did not do.  Eventually the verdict came down and you were cleared and you felt peace.  In reality, God wants us to live in the peace of "having been cleared," before the verdict is rendered.  

The reason many of us spend most of our lives upset, frustrated and troubled is because we don't have that feeling of a clear conscience.  That feeling comes from inside of us and is not based on what happens to us externally.  See it's not what someone says about us that determines how we feel.  It's what we know about us.  It's not even what others do to us, but it's knowing that, as the bible says above, that we might "suffer for righteousness sake." 

I've often used the expression, "be right, honest and just and then take whatever comes your way."  I truly believe that when we live right before God, we can experience the true joy and happiness that He gives without regard to the issues of life.  I like the way the scripture puts it above.  We will "not be afraid of their terror, neither be troubled."  The key is that we have to "follow that which is good."  We must be right before God.  That is His purpose for us.  Want to be happy? Then we've got to be right. 

Carlen