Happiness: July 1, 2014

TODAYS WORD FOR TUESDAY JULY 1, 2014.

HAPPINESS

DEFINITION:

The quality or state of being happy; good fortune; pleasure; contentment; joy.

SCRIPTURE:

Happy is he who keeps the law. Proverbs 29:18b

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

Most people, unbelievers in Jesus, feel that happiness is good health, good job, happy home, successful investments, parties and social acceptance. But all these things come and go and really should not be considered as real happiness.

King George of England wrote on the flyleaf of the Bible of a friend, “The secret of happiness is not what you like to do, but to learn to like what you have to do. Too many think of happiness as some sort of thing that is discovered by constant and relentless searching.”

Happiness is not found by seeking. It is not an end in itself. Pots of gold are never found at the end of a rainbow (as the saying goes) and as we used to think as children. Gold is mined from the ground or panned from a mountain stream, never sitting in a pot ready to be found.

We need to look at the scripture to really see what happiness is. Jesus once told His disciples, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” The “things” he spoke of in this passage were things that made us happy and secure. They were food, drink, clothes, and shelter. He told the disciples and us not to make these “things” the chief goal of our lives but to “seek the kingdom” and then these needs would be automatically supplied. There, if we will believe it, is the secret of happiness. We need not worry about being happy. In fact Jesus told us in Matthew 6:34 “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own”. Seek first the Lord and then He will give you all you need to be happy.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Romans 12: 2.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

PRAYER:

Forgive me, Lord, for the times when I have sought to find happiness in the wrong things. You have promised to take care of all my needs so keep me faithful in trusting You for my happiness.