Quickly irritated, a tendency to raise your voice, always wanting things your way, and an almost incessant need to be right all the time and control things. These are just a few of the behaviors that are telling signs of a soul that is not at rest. Isaiah 26:3(NLT) says about God, “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” God is informing us that a mindset of being at peace in Him comes standard with our packaging. In other words, a peaceful state is the natural state of being. Anything outside of this is not natural.

God also tells us in 1Corinthians 14:33 that He isn’t the author of confusion and chaos; He is a God of peace. This gives us the basis for recognizing the characteristics and qualities that come from God. He is not mean or angry. He is a very happy God; how could He not be? He’s perfectly magnificent and brilliant in every way. He has all power in His hands, and He is all love all the time. He is a very happy God, and He desires us to be that way too.

John the Baptist said in John 1:12-13(NLT), “12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Our Heavenly Father sent John the Baptist to the earth to help prepare the minds and hearts of people for the Messiah. God did this because He loves us. He made a way through Jesus Christ for us to become a part of His family. We are saved from the curse of sin and death because Jesus Christ gave his life on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. Even though most people will never say thank you to Him, our Heavenly Father orchestrated all this for us. He is delighted when we give our lives to Him through the Lord Jesus Christ and become His children. 

The truth is that whether we give our lives to Christ or not, every part of us belongs to God. He created us and every human being is His property. Because of His tremendous love, He has given us free-will, and He allows us to choose how we are going to live. He invites us to live in Him, because living in God through Jesus Christ moves us under His protection and care. Living outside of Him means that we are living in darkness, and there’s nothing good that can come of that.

This is the choice that God presents to every living person. He lovingly asks us in Romans 12:1 to present our whole selves to Him as a living sacrifice, because this is the very least we can do for all He has done for us. This means that we must turn our backs on many of the behaviors and habits that we used to indulge. Those things don’t represent the qualities of Christ. They belong to darkness, and God has absolutely no part in darkness.

When we keep on going with bad attitudes, foul language, anger issues, jealousy, bitterness, and immorality, we’re not happy because we’re not living an authentic life. All that negative stuff is fake because it doesn’t come from God’s Kingdom, it comes from the realm of darkness where everything is a counterfeit. Everything from the devil’s kingdom of darkness is designed to trick us into giving our power to him. Once we are swindled out of the power God gave us, the devil then destroys our lives. There’s nothing new about the devil’s game. Jesus Christ tells us in John 10:10 that the enemy is in the earth to kill, steal, and destroy. This is the truth and we should never forget it.  

The reality is that putting negativity out there means that negativity will come back to us. We will reap what we sow. This is very often the reason that many people are so miserable. They don’t believe in the joy, gladness, and goodness of God. Instead, they buy into what the world is selling. They see and hear everyone around them speaking a certain way and doing negative deeds, so they begin to speak this way and do those things as well. This is what causes us to be trapped in a vicious cycle of unhappiness and despair.

Jesus Christ instructs us in John 15:4(NLT), “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.” This is his invitation to each of us. It’s to allow the love and light of God to permeate every aspect of our lives, so we can produce more of His love and light. It’s our reason for being on this earth. We must recognize that our souls are crying out for us to wake up and live authentically in Christ. Once we do this, we will fulfill God’s call to be fruitful in good works and to conduct ourselves as citizens of His Kingdom. Then we will bring honor to God and live the life we were destined by Him to live. ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. 

“Believe in the Joy, Gladness, and Goodness of God”, written for Springfield Fellowship © 2022. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.