Great Plains Daily Devotional for 1/12/2022

Psalm 84:1-5, 10-12

How lovely is your dwelling place,
    Lord of heavenly forces!
My very being longs, even yearns,
    for the Lord’s courtyards.
My heart and my body
    will rejoice out loud to the living God!

Yes, the sparrow too has found a home there;
    the swallow has found herself a nest
    where she can lay her young beside your altars,
    Lord of heavenly forces, my king, my God!
Those who live in your house are truly happy;
    they praise you constantly. Selah

Those who put their strength in you are truly happy;
    pilgrimage is in their hearts.
Better is a single day in your courtyards
    than a thousand days anywhere else!
I would prefer to stand outside the entrance of my God’s house
    than live comfortably in the tents of the wicked!
The Lord is a sun and shield;
    God is favor and glory.
The Lord gives—doesn’t withhold!—good things
    to those who walk with integrity.
Lord of heavenly forces,
    those who trust in you are truly happy!

HAPPY NEW YEAR … I figure the year is new until the Summer Solstice is past, thereafter, it is more an old year than new year. So we can say Happy New Year for six months.  
            
I had heard and used “Happy New Year” so much that I was getting obsessed with Happy…truly happy regardless of how the year visibly changed. What does the bible say about HAPPY?  I found between 56 and 240 references, depending on which translation … it's full of Happy!
            
In preparing a Children’s message for the first Sunday of 2022, a song of my youth came to mind “If you’re Happy and you know it…your face will surely show it.”  Proof of happiness from within.  God wants us to be happy.  The New Testament quotes Jesus references to HAPPY many times … “Happy are people who make peace, because they will be called God’s children” Matthew 5:9. “Since you know these things, you will be happy if you do them.”  John 13:17
            
Happy are people who have pure hearts, because they will see God. Psalm 34:8 Let’s not mix up our spiritual happiness with the standards of the world. His Grace will show you HAPPY! 

Prayer for Reflection

Isaiah 43:1-7
Psalm 29
Acts 8:14-17
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22