Some years ago I finally found the doorway to happiness. It is found in the presence of God. I used to be happy if God was doing something that made me glad. But I didn't know how to be glad because of Him. I knew how to seek His hand, but I didn't really know how to seek His face.
Don't think you are going to be glad when God does the next thing for you that you want Him to do. As soon as He does, there is going to be something else you are going to want that you think you can't be glad until you get. Don't spend all your life waiting until some other time to be happy.
One day after I had received this breakthrough, I was going to a meeting, and I was singing the once popular spiritual song, "You Have Made Me Glad." It was then that the Holy Ghost spoke to me and said, "For the first time, you're singing that song right."
Because God hears our hearts more than our words, that song sounded different to Him. Before, what He heard was, "The things You have done for me have made me glad; the things You have done for me have made me glad; I will rejoice for all the things You have done for me have made me glad."
When the Lord was doing what I wanted Him to do for me, I was glad, but when He wasn't doing what I wanted Him to do for me, I was not glad. So I lived an "up-and-down" life. It was like riding a roller coaster. I was getting worn out from going up and down all the time. If my circumstances suited me, I was up, and if they didn't, I was down. If we are live in the fullness of joy, we must find something to be glad about besides our circumstances.
Even if every one of our circumstances suits us, we will eventually find that the world is full of people who don't suit us. As soon as we shape up the ones who don't suit us, still others will come along who don't suit us. It is an unending cycle.
In our ministry, we have a large number of people on our staff. Even though they are some of the most wonderful people I have ever met, there are times when they don't all make me glad.
Even being around Christian people will not make us glad all the time. The only one who can make us glad all the time, every time, is Jesus - and even He cannot do that for us unless we allow Him to do so.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers