The Happy Life through Mourning

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

THE HAPPY LIFE

Matt 5:4

4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

NIV

We would first have to determine just what should we mourn about. We could mourn over the loss of a loved one and surely in those times God would comfort us, but there still might not be the result of being happy. Of course, that might also hinge on whether the loved one lost was a solid believer in Jesus or had rejected the idea of the need to follow Jesus. To know that a loved one missed out on heaven and was spending their time in torment could never bring us the result of being happy. Even if the one we loved in this life, went to be with the Lord and was rejoicing in His presence, our feeling of loss, even in a time of comfort of knowing the Lord, may not result in our being happy. However, there is another reason we would mourn and that is over the sin in our own lives. This is having the knowledge of our own insufficiency to solve our situation and that our sin condemns us. But, when we mourn over that sin, when we grieve about the sin in our lives and turn to the only source that can do something to remedy the result, we will find comfort. When we turn to God, accepting the provision he supplied, Jesus, then we find true comfort. We might try to find some form of happiness in the world. A new home, RV, car, or even a new outfit, a pet, more money, or whatever we think will bring us a good feeling does not bring the result of being comforted by God, who is the only source for being blessed, happy, content, satisfied, and complete. Nothing relieves the result of sin, except Jesus. So, this is the reason we mourn over our sin, and find the comfort, the parakaleo, the same root word used of the Holy Spirit, the paracleat, the comforter. This is then the result of truly being happy, because we know that through Jesus we have salvation, we have been declared by God to be holy and blameless in his sight. Why would we not be happy about that? Yes, even through we mourned over our sinful life, turned to Jesus and are now saved, we still have this sin within. Just as Paul said that whenever he wanted to do good, that is live free of sin, evil, sin was right then with him. As long as we live in this flesh we will also have that same war the wages within us. There will also be this battle with sin, but through Jesus we have already been given the victory, and the result will be the comfort of God which means we can live a happy life.