Finding Happiness in 2013.

It is a terrible lie. Over and over we hear that we should measure the quality of our lives by the number of blessings we receive or do not receive. We are told that more blessings will make us happier. We sometimes believe that we will become miserable if we don’t get what we want. The is what the world tells us. And it is a lie.

The world bombards us with the myth that we need SOMETHING or some event or some amount of money, or some car, or some relationship, to make us happy. But that is not Christianity, unless that Someone is God.

The Christian faith teaches that no matter what God permits or directs into our lives, we can still be happy in that and through that experience. We can be blessed in any situation and in every circumstance, even if it leads us to death.

Do not the hardest experiences Christians go through leave us with the most blessings? Can’t we learn to be be content even with poverty, if we have Christ? Can’t we delight in his approval when we have sacrificed for his Kingdom? Can’t we trust in his provision for the future and not worry or fret or be afraid because we struggle with money or relationships? He has something in store for us that is greater than riches, better than health, and more precious than the love of any human being.

The tests of faith that come to us all prove the validity of our faith. God isn’t seeking to destroy us. But he is determined to refine us.

To have a blessed New Year, Do This: Have all your happiness, all your blessedness to be found in God alone. Not in any other person. Not in any thing you desire. Not in any experience you long for. You can be happy. You can be happy every day, every moment, all year long. You can be happy for as long as you live. No matter what happens.

Happiness comes from trusting God. And in nothing or no one else.

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
(Romans 8:38-39 ESV)