We were made for joy. We were made for happiness that isn’t tied to our next vacation, glass of wine, or new gadget. It’s not even about God making all our dreams come true. Our joy is connected to one singular source. The kind of joy we’re talking about here isn’t superficial or dependent on circumstances; it’s divine and eternal. It comes from God and is rooted in his unchanging character and boundless love for us.
The Bible says that the joy of the Lord is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). I’ve found this to be true. When the Enemy targets my strength, he aims to sabotage my joy, because my strength flows from my joy. So if my strength is powered by my joy, I must ask: What is my joy connected to?
Why True Joy in Jesus Is Stronger Than Circumstances
Many of us grapple with the elusive sensation of joy in our lives because we often tether our joy to fleeting and fragile sources. Our spirits will always feel drained when our joy is anchored to something momentary. Imagine if our joy is rooted in a job promotion and then we’re passed over—suddenly our spirit feels crushed and our strength depleted. If our joy is wrapped up in another person and that person leaves our life for any reason, our joy goes with them, leaving us hollow. When our joy hinges on the next big achievement and we fall short, our joy perishes alongside our unmet goals. But when our joy is linked to its true and eternal source, a divine conduit designed to perpetuate an endless flow, we can sustain the current of God’s power in our lives, even through any season and every storm!
We must recognize that our joy is meant to flow from a single unshakable source, and that source is the Lord. When our joy is intertwined with Jesus, it becomes impervious to the Enemy’s assaults, because the Enemy must confront Jesus to even touch our joy! That’s why it’s crucial to remain in Christ, our supernatural source.
The Beatitudes: Jesus’ First Message of True Joy
As Jesus, God in flesh, began his ministry on earth, as captured in the pages of what we call the New Testament, he opened his first recorded sermon, in Matthew 5, with “Blessed are . . . [I hear a dramatic pause before he utters his next words] . . . the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (v. 3).
Did you catch it? Do you think his listeners that day, gathered on the quiet, desolate hillside of Eremos, caught it? Jesus connected all that the law left us with—the curse—to the life that now exists for those who come to exist in him:
Blessing.
He brought into view the opportunity to walk away from a cursed life and experience the wonder of a blessed one. This transition from curse to blessing is not just a theological concept; it represents a profound shift in the human condition. Where there was once condemnation and despair, Jesus introduced hope and renewal. He offers a new covenant, one that is based not on human ability to follow laws but on God’s grace and the transformative power of faith in Christ.
Here’s the fascinating thing about the word he chose with divine intentionality to declare first. “Blessed” in the original language would have been understood by those assembled that day as “happy.” This choice of word is significant.
Over and over again, eight times, Jesus used the word “happy” in communicating how profoundly heaven’s principles could affect our lives. Happiness, as Jesus described it, is not a fleeting emotion based on external circumstances but a deep, abiding sense of well-being that comes from a right relationship with God. The essence of his first message was how to be happy!
With this inaugural message, Jesus dropped a joy bomb.
This message, at the intersection of happiness and heaven, would disrupt the collective and individual spiritual paradigms in a way that would send shock waves through their souls, tremors through their teachings, and rivets through their religiosity. It detonated the possibility of a joy the money, entertainment, sex, pleasure, or success never could.
True joy, as Jesus presented it, is accessible to all, regardless of temperament or circumstance. Turn down the noise that fights to drown out the whisper that echoes throughout the vastness of your soul and tells you there is more. Not just more for someone else. More for you. More joy, fulfillment, purpose, freedom, possibility, and love than you could ever imagine.
You were wired to experience happiness because you were created by the God of infinite joy.
This divine wiring is not an accident; it reflects the very nature of God, who is the source of all true joy. Embracing this joy means aligning yourself with the reality of God’s love and purpose for your life. It means stepping into a life that is defined not by the limitations of the old covenant but by the limitless possibilities of the new covenant in Christ.
How important to the heart of God must your joy be if it’s the first thing Jesus spoke of in his first recorded sermon on planet Earth?
Your happiness matters to God.
Here’s the truth: Where that joy comes from has been atrociously misattributed. What you will discover in the pages of this book is that Jesus is the singular source of happiness and that he has principles, ways of living, that not only bring happy feelings to us but create wells of deep joy within us.
Required Permissions Line:
Adapted from Joy Bomb by Tauren Wells. Copyright © 2025 by Tauren Wells. Used by permission of Zondervan. www.zondervan.com.
Tauren Wells is a celebrated platinum-selling recording artist, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter with ten GRAMMY® Award nominations, six number ones, eight GMA Dove Awards, a Billboard Music Award nomination, and over 1.2 billion global streams to date (and counting). Some of his hit songs include Hills and Valleys, Known, Joy In The Morning, and Take It All Back. Tauren and his wife, Lorna, serve as co-lead pastors at Church of Whitestone, a fast-growing, multiethnic, multigenerational church in Austin, Texas. Church of Whitestone strives to establish a church family that empowers people in Austin and around the world to discover their God-authored identity through wholehearted relationship with God. Joy Bomb is Tauren’s first book.
