Why you are so happy?

Reverend Roger Woller

Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:12)

Have you ever asked “Why you are so happy”? A friend of yours is smiling and humming a happy tune. You are in a bad mood, and your friend is enjoying life, smiling and singing. You ask, “Why are you so happy? What is there to smile about?” You ask because you don’t want to miss out; you want to be happy, too.
You want to be happy. You want to feel blessed. Jesus is talking to you in the verse from Matthew 5:12. He says to you, “Rejoice and be glad.”

He then gives you the reason you can be happy and be filled with “joy” and “gladness.” He said, “Because great is your reward in heaven.”

There might be all kinds of reasons why your friend is happy, but you need to know that there is a reason why you can “rejoice and be glad” at all times. Even when nothing in your life is going the way you want it, and especially when people around you are making fun of your faith in Jesus, you can still be joyful and glad. They laugh because you believe that the world and everything in it were created by God in six days. You are ridiculed because you confess and believe that faith in Jesus is the only way to heaven. When you are being insulted, persecuted, and made fun of because you are a Christian, Jesus says to you, “You are blessed.”
“Blessed!” How can you be blessed if you are insulted, persecuted, and made fun of because of Jesus? Jesus says and promises, “Great is your reward in heaven.”

Jesus paid for all of your sins. He made you right in God’s eyes. You are a stranger here on Earth, but heaven is your home. So, be happy—be glad. Great is your reward in heaven thanks be to Jesus.
Rejoice, my heart, be glad and sing;A cheerful trust maintain,For God, the source of ev’rything,Your treasure shall remain. (CW #443 v.1)

Blog entry used by permission of The Lutheran Home Association. For more information, visit tlha.org