Blessed!

What is happiness to you? Does your happiness include God? I happen to be a grumbler who often finds things to be disappointed with. Rarely does a situation meet the expectations of what I think it should be. I wonder if God wants us to be happy, and if so, what should this happiness consist of? I recently read that another definition for the word, blessed - makarios in Greek, is happy. Scripture tells us the following will make us happy:

Happy are all who take refuge in him. (Psalm 2: 12)

Happy is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. (Psalm 32:1)

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Happy is the man who takes refuge in him! (Psalm 34:8)

Happy is the man who makes the Lord his trust. (Psalm 40:4)

May his name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun! May people be happy in him, all nations call him blessed! (Psalm 72:17).

We have every reason to be happy! We, as Christians, are grafted into God's family. We are adopted sons and daughters:
But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." So you are no longer a slave, but God's child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. (Galatians 4:4-7)

We are made new in Christ!
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us! (Philippians 4:13)

Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ! (Romans 8: 38-39)

Why do we grumble? We are blessed indeed!

Compassion for the Mentally Ill

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died - more than that, who was raised - who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-39)

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported that one in five Americans in 2010 suffered from mental illness; 5% of the illnesses were severe enough that they affected the ability of these Americans to study, work and or maintain healthy relationships.

I have friends and extended family who have suffered from various mental illnesses,and have, therefore, come to understand that it is not a quality that should bring out condemnation but rather demands compassion from the Christian community.

Parents of children who suffer from mental illness experience shame for the behavior and symptoms expressed by their children. Likewise, children whose parents suffer from mental illness carry the confusing sense that they are somehow responsible for their parents' problems. The weight of the sickness bears heavily not only on the one personally afflicted but also on friends and family of the loved one. As Solomon wrote,
A man's spirit will endure sickness,
but a crushed spirit who can bear? (Proverbs 18:14)

Whether the illness is situational or biological, God's love is not conditional. Regardless of mental state, we are loved with an everlasting love by a God who does not condemn us. Even in mental illness, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Dear Father,
I pray that You would watch over my friend/family member who struggles with mental illness and those close to him/her. Be with them as they attempt to understand the illness and seek treatment. Please guide him/her and those who provide council and assistance. You are our light in darkness. Through Your love, we are more than conquerors.
In Christ's Name. Amen.

Conley, M. (2012, January 19). 1 in 5 Americans Suffers From Mental Illness. Retrieved October 8, 2014 from: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/01/19/1-in-5-americans-suffer-from-mental-illness/