Am I Always Supposed to Be Happy?

I have this fallacy in my head, that I must always be happy because I have Jesus, and others haven’t found Him yet. I feel that as a Christian it is my job to show everyone how great life is with God. The thing is, I am miserable lately. My friends are happy and a lot of them are nice, but I’m being warn down by all of the people that don’t like me and persecute me. I am in pain all the time and I am tired. Everyone is tired, I know that, but this is different for me. I feel that something is wrong. I have tried to at least seem happy but it’s not working anymore people are starting to see through me and they criticize me for it. My faith is taking a beating and I’m falling hard and fast. I know that the Lord is always there but I feel really lonely sometimes.

The Lord has not asked us to be happy all the time. In 2 Corinthians 1: 8b-9 it says, “We are under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure so that we despaired even of life. Indeed in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened, that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.” This verse is so powerful, and it shows us that it is not the Lord’s plan to have us miserable all the time, but He also is here to save us from our sorrow. He is not telling us that we must be happy all the time. I feel better knowing that I am not sinning because I am sad. I know that because I give it all to the Lord he will take care of me and bring me back to happiness.