As with so many things, the world has taken the true meaning of real happiness and distorted it. Society tells us that the way to find happiness is to follow our hearts, but God’s Word tells us in Jeremiah 17:9(NLT), “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” Our Creator has made it clear that we are not to lean on our own understanding; therefore, when it comes to the true path of happiness, our hearts may lead us astray. Happiness is a feeling that is rooted in joy, and joy is a fruit of God’s Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the One who teaches us the internal pathway to true happiness. Following the world’s guide, most people have steered themselves away from Heavenly Father, the Source of all goodness and joy. They’ve made finding happiness a complicated exercise in selfishness, and they’ve chased after all kinds of things that have left them feeling empty and depleted.
Most of us have done this because we weren’t taught any different. We’ve made our own assumptions and calculations about what it will take for us to be happy. Whether it’s financial and/or professional success, a significant relationship, or pursuing whatever dreams we may have, we teach ourselves that these are the achievements and successes that will bring us that elusive feeling of contentment. Movies and tv shows hype this up, and many of the people we look up to tell us these are the things that will lead us on the path of true fulfillment. The thing is, lots of folks have walked that path, and their lives don’t paint a convincing portrait of happiness. Many of them are successful, yet unhappy, and some of them speak, think, and behave very negatively as well.
The psalmist, King David, said in Psalm 139:1,4,5,7,16 (NLT), “1 O LORD, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. 4 You know what I am going to say even before I say it, LORD. 5 You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. 7 I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! 16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” Our Heavenly Father never misses a beat. All knowledge belongs to Him, and He knows everything there is to know about each and every individual. He created us through Jesus Christ, and through His Spirit, He has made us a part of Him.
The piece of information that none of us can afford to ignore is that nothing about us is random and God has a plan for our lives. The further away we are from His plan, the further we are from all He has in store for us. Trying to live a happy life outside faith in God is not a productive exercise. We must be led by the Father. He tells us in Proverbs 3:5-6(NLT), “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” Many of us have made the mistake of thinking that some aspects of our lives are excluded from Proverbs 3:5-6, but that is an erroneous assumption. Every ounce of us belongs to God, and His Will is that we surrender our whole lives to Him.
Galatians 1:3-4(NLT) tells us that our Heavenly Father gives us grace and peace. He gave the life of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for our sins because this was the Father’s plan all along. God did this to rescue us from this evil world, and if for one second we think that this world isn’t an evil place, we are sorely mistaken. God calls the times in which you and I currently live an ‘evil age’, and indeed it is. It is evil because sin dominates the hearts of most human beings.
Sin entered the world as a result of the choice Adam and Eve made to remove themselves from God’s sovereignty. They wanted independence, and God didn’t stop them from making this choice. 1John 4:8 tells us that God is love. Everything He does is out of His great love for us all, but the first couple no longer wanted to be under the arc of God’s love. Because He had given them free-will, God allowed them to abdicate love’s way. That was their choice.
Many people think this was a very foolish choice for Adam and Eve to make, but all of us make the same choices every day. We don’t want anyone telling us what to do, and most of us see humility as an antiquated notion. Husbands refuse to submit to their wives; wives refuse to submit to their husbands, and children refuse to submit to their parents. We have not been as loving to one another as God commands, we have not put Jesus Christ at the head of all that we do, and many of us haven’t instructed and modeled Godliness before our children. So, we can’t blame everything on Brother Adam and Sister Eve. Romans 5:12(NLT) tells us, “When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.”
Through God’s wonderful grace and His gift of making us right through Jesus Christ, we have forgiveness of sin. We can live the more than abundant life that Jesus Christ came to the earth to make available. We have this wonderful new relationship with God because of what Christ accomplished for us. The question each of us must ask is whether we are celebrating this relationship with God through Jesus Christ every day. Many of us are not jumping with joy and thrilled beyond belief because we’ve not accepted the reality that we were doomed to death and darkness without Christ. Now, we are no longer slaves to darkness and destruction. We are free and able to walk in the liberty of Christ every moment of each day. Because of him, the born-again believer will never see hell, but instead, we can remain under the shadow of our Almighty God continually. If this isn’t enough to knock our socks off, we need new socks.
Jesus Christ gave a parable of a farmer who planted seeds in order to teach us about producing a life that is pleasing to God and pleasing to us as well. He tells us that the farmer spread seeds and some of them fell among the thorns. Those thorns grew right along with the seedlings, and soon choked them out. This is what happens to many of us. We allow the cares of the world to overwhelm us and choke the vitality and happiness out of our lives because we are not anchored and rooted in the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Finding true happiness is a spiritual exercise that begins internally, through God’s Spirit. Jesus Christ said in John 16:13 that the Spirit will guide us into all truth. It is a process that requires our patience, dedication and commitment to let the Spirit lead and not try to take over or control things ourselves. Instead of giving the world all our attention, and allowing our emotions to rule our lives, we need to recognize that being strengthened spiritually through Christ is where all good things start. Have faith in God’s plan for your life by partnering with the Spirit’s work. Increase your effort to grow in the Spirit by reading and studying God’s Word and praying more. This is the way to deepen your well of joy and find the path to true happiness.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Finding True Happiness”, written for victoryinjesuschrist.life. Copyright© 2021. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
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