24 Jul A Key to Happiness for Christians
DON’T LOOK FOR HAPPINESS IN THE WRONG PLACES
Perhaps the ultimate value in American culture is happiness. That value goes back as far as our Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
This theme of happiness pops up time and time again in American culture. When pondering choices to be made, relationships to pursue, dreams to chase, the guiding phrase is typically: “I just want to be happy.” Or when giving counsel to others on the same issues, it is: “I just want you to be happy.”
There is certainly nothing wrong in wanting to be happy. The Bible holds up joy and “gladness” (the word “happiness” doesn’t occur often, but “gladness does, over 100 times) over and over again, from beginning to end. The challenge is, of course, understanding how to get joy and gladness.
There is a strategic verse in Psalm 90:14 that gives us a clue:
Oh satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
As we work this passage backwards, we learn that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days, but only if we are satisfied in the morning with God’s lovingkindness.
So, a strategic key to happiness for the Christian is cultivating an appreciation for God’s lovingkindness.
Lovingkindness is God’s kindness that He directs toward us out of His love for us. There are two steps in cultivating our appreciation for God’s lovingkindness. First is understanding what it is, and second is repeating that understanding until it changes us.
This is a vast subject of course, and there are several ways to cultivate our appreciation for God’s lovingkindness. But one way is to look at God’s demonstrations of his lovingkindness to us, of which there are at least 7:
- God offers us His love.
Scripture: See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. 1 John 3:1
Quote: We are born for love. It is the principle of existence and its only end. Benjamin Disraeli
- Our sins are forgiven.
Scripture: As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Psalm 103:12
Quote:To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you. C. S. Lewis
- We are born again, spiritually.
Scripture: You have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable. 1 Peter 1:23
Quote: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God – whether they stand at the heights of political power or the depths of prison confinement. I have been in both spots. And no matter where a person is, God will meet him or her there with an invitation to forgiveness and new life. Chuck Colson
- We will live forever in paradise.
Scripture: If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. John 14:3
Quote: Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind. C. S. Lewis
- We are actors in the divine purposes on earth, with the dignity of causality.
Scripture: For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10
Quote:“God,” said Pascal, “instituted prayer in order to lend to His creatures the dignity of causality.” But not only prayer; whenever we act at all He lends us that dignity. It is not really stranger, nor less strange, that my prayers should affect the course of events than that my other actions should do so.
For He seems to do nothing of Himself which He can possibly delegate to His creatures. He commands us to do slowly and blunderingly what He could do perfectly and in the twinkling of an eye. This is how (no light matter) God makes something—indeed, makes gods—out of nothing. C.S. Lewis
- We receive disproportionate eternal reward for things suffered in this life.
Scripture: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Romans 8:18
Quote:On the day of the Lord – the day that God makes everything right, the day that everything sad becomes untrue – on that day the same thing will happen to your own hurts and sadness. You will find that the worst things that ever happened to you will in the end only enhance your eternal delight. On that day, all of it will be turned inside out and you will know joy beyond the walls of the world. The joy of your glory will be that much greater for every scar you bear. Timothy Keller
- We will share in God’s glory.
Scripture: For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. 2 Corinthians 4:17
Quote: It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship… There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. C. S. Lewis
Conclusion
These verses, along with these quotes, help us gain a glimpse of God’s lovingkindness toward us. Having gained that glimpse, having understood something of its importance, we can now take the second step… repeat this truth until it changes us.
To that end, consider bookmarking this post and reviewing these truths regularly.
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