Peace Plus Joy Equals Happiness

Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven. Psalm 32:1

Wherever the peace of God is fixed in the soul, there is also joy in the holy spirit, joy created I the heart by that Holy Spirit, the ever-blessed Spirit of God. He is the one who works in us that calm, humble rejoicing in God through Christ Jesus, by whom we have received the atonement the reconciliation with Gd. An because of this reconciliation, the Holy Spirit enables us boldly to confirm the truth of the psalmist’s decoration, “happy is the one whose unrighteousness is forgiven, and whose sin is covered.” The same holy Spirit inspires the Christian soul with that even, solid joy arising from the testimony of the Spirit of the child of God. And that causes him or her to “rejoice with joy unspeakable, in hope of the glorious image of God, now in part and which shall be fully revealed in him; and of that crown of glory which fades not away, reserved in heaven for him.

This holiness and happiness, joined together, are sometimes styled in the sacred writings the kingdom of God, as in Mark 1:15, and sometimes the kingdom of heaven. It is termed the kingdom of God because it is the immediate fruit of God’s reigning in the soul. It is called the kingdom of heaven because it is, in a degree, heaven opened in the soul right here on earth.