Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Today we have a couple of verses in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verses 16 and 17, and it simply says this: "Always be joyful. Never stop praying." It's pretty straightforward in the way of instruction. And this is written by a guy named Paul to a community of faith that earlier in the chapter, he talks about how well they're doing as a community.
He says that they're expressing the love of Jesus and the work of the gospel in and around their community, and he's championing what they're doing. He's encouraging them to keep going. And I love that in this instruction, he gives these two simple phrases: be joyful and keep praying.
The Difference Between Joy and Happiness
Joy is an interesting thing because sometimes we can make it completely synonymous with happiness. Now, I think sometimes joy has happiness qualities, but it is important to know that those two things are different. A story comes to mind for me.
One time I was in a coffee shop and I was on a very rainy day reading my scriptures and actually preparing a message about joy. And I'll tell you, there was this living example right before my eyes that I feel like God sort of set up for me to see, so I would never forget the difference between happiness and joy.
The Coffee Shop Story
This woman comes running into the coffee shop. She's soaking wet, runs to the counter, and immediately she says to the barista, "I lost my purse! Has anybody found a purse?" Now everybody in the coffee shop immediately looks around and we start looking underneath our chairs and on the tables. Because she's so upset, we're all feeling instantly this connection with a hope that she finds her purse.
And the barista, sort of flustered, says, "Oh, let me just go to the back and let me see what's going on." So goes to the back and he comes out holding a purse and he sort of loudly proclaims, "Here it is, ma'am." And she's excited. You see the lift? She just stands up straight. She grabs the purse. She opens it, and she goes, "This is not my bag!"
I mean, I can't express to you what was felt in that coffee shop in that moment when the bag came out from the back. We genuinely – I look around, everybody's smiling. We're excited. This woman feels like what she was hoping for has come to pass, and now she realizes that's not it. And not only was she sad, it's like she was even lower than she was when she first came in. She put her head on the counter and she begins to cry. The guy feels terrible who brought the bag out. We're all there, kind of helpless, looking around, kind of in the shared experience of sadness.
But then, happily, this girl comes out from the back sheepishly, this time not as confident as the first guy, and offers up to the woman, "Is this your purse?" The woman picks up her head. She looks at the purse and immediately she says, "Yes, this is the purse!" And everybody in the coffee shop starts clapping. I mean, we're so invested because we have felt the roller coaster in these moments of happiness to sadness, to happiness again.
She reaches in her bag, she grabs her phone, she calls somebody and runs out without even saying thank you. "They found my purse! They found my purse!" and she goes into her car and takes off.
The Lesson
And I told you I was in there studying about joy. And here I see a living example of how circumstances can affect our happiness or sadness. As things go on around us, it will affect our response to what's going on. But this joyfulness that is being instructed of these people is to remain in a place of gratitude and connectedness and knowledge that even in the waiting, God is still working. Knowing that even when things are hard, we take joy in the fact that we are connected to Him.
So maybe you need to be encouraged today by these verses to always be joyful and never stop thanking God. Never stop seeking Him. Never stop praying in your life.