Walk His Way

When the angel announced that Christ had been born, this was the message he delivered: “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!” (Luke 2:10–11 NLT).

The Christian faith is a happy faith and a hopeful faith. We have hope in this life and in our relationship with the Lord, and we have hope for the afterlife. But this doesn’t mean that Christians are happy all the time or that we should walk around wearing fake smiles.

After all, Christians have moments of sadness, too. Christians even grapple with depression and other difficulties that everyone else deals with. We have hard times and setbacks, even if we are God’s children.

Being a Christian doesn’t mean that we’ll be exempt from facing a tragedy or a hardship. But what it does mean is that in the midst of our difficulties, we can experience happiness. It comes down to something the apostle Paul frequently referred to when he was writing to the believers in Philippi.

There are 16 references to the mind in Philippians, which tells us that the secret of Christian happiness is found in the way that we think, not in the way that we feel. So if we want to be happy, then we need to think properly.

Paul filled his heart and his mind with Jesus Christ. And why is that important? Because the way we think will affect how we live. For instance, we will walk in the direction that we’re looking. That’s why it’s hard to look over your shoulder and keep walking forward.

In the same way, when we’re looking to the Lord, we will walk in His direction. Every action starts with a thought. And what we think is what we’ll do.