Beverly shared with the new physician some of the tragedies that had befallen her in life. Her first marriage had ended in divorce. Her second husband had died saving her life in a head-on collision. She had suffered multiple injuries even though he had shielded her with his own body a second before the crash. Her son had died just ten days before his fourteenth birthday. Born with spina bifida, he had undergone 97 surgeries; his unfailing courage matched by hers. She herself had three major maladies that required a doctor’s care. "My," said the doctor, "you must have a lot of depression!" "Not really," she answered. "I have discovered that depression is not God’s will for me, and I have learned how to deal with it successfully." The doctor insisted that depression is necessary; that God uses it to make believers better people. When Beverly defended her position with Scripture he agreed to hear her again on the subject. Is depression God’s will for believers, or is it contrary to His will? Does it produce better Christians or destroy life and ministry? These are good questions, and most important ones. Human reason fails us here, as it does so often, for God’s thoughts and ways are not ours, and the Bible is full of surprises. "These things have I spoken to you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. " Christ spoke these words to the 12 on the night of His betrayal, but they have significance for us as well. On the eve of His crucifixion He is concerned for the happiness of His followers! "In the world you shall have trouble, " He had said, but be of good cheer because I have overcome the world. "

Many Christians believe that happiness depends on circumstances. Human happiness does. But our Lord is not here promising human happiness. "My happiness." Divine happiness, a happiness that survives difficulty and triumphs over tragedy. A happiness that enables believers to turn adversity into advantage and to "be of good cheer" in the process. No ordinary happiness, this. It saw Him through a difficult life and an excruciatingly painful and immensely terrifying death. It stood the test of Time and it will span Eternity. It is just this same brand happiness that He wills for us.., uninterruptedly. Christ not only wants His happiness to be ours, but to be ours continuously. "That my happiness might abide (remain, continue, dwell comfortably in, make its home) in you. " It is not to come and go. It is to come and stay!How can this be? Life on this earth is studded with disappointments. How is it possible to have an ongoing happiness in spite of difficulty, discouragement, loss, pain, and even despair? Does not the happiness that comes with good health evaporate when health is gone? Wealth may bring happiness, but what if wealth gives way to poverty? When our friends surround us we rejoice, but what if they reject us? We exult in loved ones, but loved ones move...or die! Political freedom is cause for rejoicing, but it is rare and usually short-lived. How can Christ promise abiding happiness to His followers when they must contend with the world, the flesh and the devil? When the cards of life seem stacked against them. When the very forces of nature seem bent on their destruction.

Monty lived in seventeen different foster homes in his first seventeen years. Not a good one in the bunch. Finally he joined the Marines. Following military service, he became a bartender, married and had two children. At forty he was led to Christ by his wife. At forty-two he sold his house and went to college to prepare for Christian ministry. He was a good husband, a good father, and a faithful Christian. He never let life rob him of his joy in Christ.

But Christ not only wills unending happiness for the believer, He insists that it be full and complete. Divine happiness survives when human happiness fails, because it is divine happiness. For the same reason it can be experienced in fullest measure. The revealed will of God in Scripture for you and for me is not a little bit of happiness part of the time, but total happiness unbroken by circumstance.

Richard Wormbrand was tortured daily for fourteen years by his Communist jailers in Rumania. Yet he says that he wouldn’t trade those years for anything because throughout them he was especially conscious of the presence of Christ. Separated from his wife and son, he had little hope of ever knowing freedom. While he had no reason for human happiness, he had divine happiness, making terrible years wonderful years.

Paul didn’t look for trouble, but when it came he rejoiced in the

sufficiency of Christ. The secret of success for believers is not achieving a

trouble-free life, but realizing that Christ within is greater than trouble

without. God has equipped every believer to survive every difficulty

triumphantly and to enjoy Him in the process. But how, realistically, do we turn such potential into capacity?The secret is God’s Word! "I have said these things to you in order

that my happiness might abide in you. " "These things. " Bible doctrine. Doctrine must never be an end in itself, but a means to an end. It was the words of Christ that were to produce joy in the lives of the 12 then, and it is the words of Christ that are to produce it in us now. Human happiness comes from earthly sources. Divine happiness comes from absorbing God’s message and believing it. Nothing produces happiness like believing what the Lord says about our place in His plan. The 12 knew exactly where they fit into the Earthly Kingdom Program. We must know where we fit into our program...the Heavenly Program.

Certainly regarding what God has made Christ to be to us and what He has made us to be "in Him" cannot fail to fill the life with gladness. There is a vitally important connection between what we believe and our "happiness quotient." Joy , in Scripture, is frequently connected to Bible doctrine. The relationship between God’s truth and man’s happiness is everywhere in Scripture. Paul would rather go to be with the Lord, but wants to delay his home going so that the Philippians may have greater happiness ‘through believing.’ Galatians 5: 22 tells us that "the fruit of the Spirit is joy. How does the Holy Spirit produce joy in the heart of the believer? Galatians is a book about the importance of the Gospel of Christ’s grace...and the dangers of accepting a substitute gospel. Substitute gospels, messages that intrude human merit into God’s plan of pure grace, block spiritual happiness. God’s clear teaching of uncompromised grace brings spiritual happiness in greater and greater measure.

Believers who are less than serious about Christ and less than positive toward real Bible study will always doubt the clear teaching of John 15: 1 I. It will be passed over as a platitude and not taken literally. Christ here says that doctrine ingested produces uninterrupted joy in fullest measure. The flesh, Christian or otherwise, will not believe this. That is why so few believers lead exciting, meaningful lives and so many are characterized by chronic depression.

The answers are no farther from us than our Bibles. Trusting in the truthfulness of God’s declarations makes the difference between surviving a disappointing existence and enjoying the adventure of a Christ-focused life.