His heart was cheered and his courage was high in the ways of the Lord… – 2 Chronicles 17:6, Amplified Bible (AMP)

I was educated in the public school system. I attended middle school and high school during the 1980s, and by that time God’s ways had been under attack for decades in our culture. The typical attitude I encountered from my fellow students was something like this:

Why would you want to be a Christian? There’s no fun in that! You have to obey a bunch of rules that make you unhappy..

The irony of their attitude is that the truth is exactly the opposite. Obedience to God makes you happy. Disobedience to God makes you unhappy. Throughout the books of the Old Testament, we find countless examples of people suffering pain, fear, and bitterness because they lived lives according to the mantra, “If it feels good, do it.”

I read a modern example of this irony just this morning. According to CNN:

Actor Shia LaBeouf has literally made an art of apologizing for a chain of ill deeds. He added a link to that chain late Thursday, when police said he lit up a cigarette in a Broadway theater.The “Transformers” actor was led away in handcuffs from a showing of “Cabaret” at a theater at New York’s Studio 54. He was drunk and had been disruptive in the theater, police said.He had been sitting in the audience, CNN affiliate WABC reported, when he allegedly disrupted the show during the first act. He was arrested and charged with criminal trespass and disorderly conduct, due to his reported disruptive behavior and obscene language, said police spokesman Brian Sessa. They are holding him overnight at a police precinct, and he’ll likely see a judge in the morning.

I heard a report pertaining to this story on the radio this morning, and in that report it was disclosed that LaBeouf had to be muzzled by police because he kept spitting on them.

This rich, famous actor who “has it all” is obviously not happy. He’s miserable. Someone who is constantly drunk, disruptive, and disrespectful is running away from some internal pain, and LaBeouf’s latest outburst indicates that the actor isn’t at peace; he’s crying out for help. His help is in Christ, if he will but acknowledge it.

In contrast to all of this, we find Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 17:6 filled with a cheerful and encouraged heart. The source of his cheer and courage? Obedience to the Lord. As 2 Chronicles 17:3-4 (AMP) tells us:

3 The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the first ways of his father [David]. He did not seek the Baals

4 But sought and yearned with all his desire for the Lord, the God of his father, and walked in His commandments and not after the ways of Israel.

When we act and think in accordance with God’s will, we will receive God’s blessings of heart peace and provision. When we have those blessings, we cannot help but be encouraged and cheerful.

If you want the pleasure for a season that sin brings, fine. Understand that the consequences of your sin will eventually rob you of your joy. If you want the blessing of a cheerful, encouraged heart, then seek God, not sin. If you seek God, you will not regret it.