Choose to Be Happy

The strength and happiness of a man consists in finding out the way in which God is going, and going that way too. Henry Ward Beecher

What does it take to be happy?  Have you ever asked yourself that question?  Too many times I think we let others decide whether we will be happy or not. If we put our life in the proper perspective, happiness comes from within, not from others.  Too many times I think we depend on other people to make us happy and we always come away disappointed.

One of the reasons I think this happens is because we place our faith in the wrong person or thing.  If I am depending on people on this earth to bring me happiness, then I will often be disappointed.  In life we will run into people every day who are living life for themselves.  When this happens, they are not going to be working on bringing you happiness.  Their main focus is on their own happiness. 

The only place where we should look for happiness is in the Lord.  If we are depending on our human relationships on this earth to bring us happiness we will be disappointed.  We are all sinners and we let others down.  God is the only One who can give us true happiness and to get it we must follow Him.  When we follow Him, we soon learn that how others treat us doesn’t really matter in the long run.  It is God the Father who matters and he can bring us the ultimate happiness in Him. 

Paul was one of the greatest teachers of all time and he found happiness in God.  When others were criticizing, competing and conspiring against his ministry he continued to follow God.  That is where his happiness was found, in God. Paul says it is a privilege to suffer when you’re doing the right thing because you’re most like Jesus when somebody’s nailing you to a cross and trying to get at you. 

If we stop looking for approval from people and start looking for approval from God instead, happiness will follow.   

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I am guilty of looking for happiness in those around me.  We are all sinners and fail each other at various times.  The one thing I know for certain is that you will not fail me nor forsake me.  My happiness and hope is found in You.

Scripture: Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God, Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; Who keeps truth forever, Who executes justice for the oppressed, Who gives food to the hungry. The Lord gives freedom to the prisoners.  Psalm 146:5-7