I Think Myself Happy

Day 60

Acts 25 & 26

Put yourself in Paul’s sandals: You’ve been arrested for doing nothing more than praying as a Jew in the Jewish Temple, you’ve been charged with a capital offense of which you are completely innocent, and now you have been unjustly imprisoned for two long years! At last you have a chance to tell your side of the story. Would the first words out of your mouth be, “I think myself happy.”?

I suspect we might be more prone to say something like…

I think myself sad.

I think myself mad!

I think myself mistreated!

I think myself a victim of scurrilous liars and cruel misfortunes of fate.

But not Paul. His confession wasn’t that he was sad, mad, mistreated or a victim of any kind. His confession was, I THINK MYSELF HAPPY!

I Love that! I want to be like that. Paul knew a secret that few people know. He knew the secret to happiness. Most people think that happiness is what happens to you when good things happen in your life. But the Bible says something else. The Bible teaches that good things come from within and are released by the words we speak (Matthew 12:34-35). Proverbs 15:23 says this…

A man has joy by the answer of his mouth.

It’s not what happens to you that determines your happiness, it’s your answer to what happens to you that determines your happiness!

When King Agrippa said to Paul, “You are permitted to speak for yourself”, the first thing out of Paul’s mouth was, “I think myself happy.” And he was. Paul didn’t allow circumstances to dictate to him whether or not he would have the joy of the Lord — Paul spoke a word of faith and he had what he said!

So Paul was on trial…again…and as was always the case when Paul was on trial, he turned the tables and before long it was Agrippa who was on trial. Then Agrippa uttered those fateful words, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian.” Almost. Agrippa went to hell for one word. Almost. If you remove the “almost” from Agrippa’s confession it changes everything, but there’s no such thing as an “Almost Christian.” I imagine Agrippa in hell uttering one word over and over throughout eternity, almost…almost…almost.

But that is not our fate. We have not almost confessed Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we have fully made our confession unto salvation. And not only are we saved…we are happy. It is our confession. I think myself happy! Life and death are in the power of the tongue. We can also say that happiness and sadness are in the power of the tongue. I think myself happy! I belief myself happy! I say myself happy! And my self does what it’s told.

I think myself happy!

On our Israel tours we always visit Caesarea on our first full day. Among the places we visit there is the very spot where Paul stood before Agrippa and Festus and made his confession, “I think myself happy.” I always stand there and make the same confession.

He is a picture of me at the “I think myself happy” spot.

I hope you’re making plans to go with us to Israel in November. We’re filling up our second bus!

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I can’t wait for Sunday morning! It’s the Second Coming, you know! Well, I preaching on the Second Coming. It will be a blessing. See you then.

BZ