TRUE HAPPINESS

 

 TRUE HAPPINESS IS IN JESUS CHRIST

Happiness is a choice.  Everyone is in the pursuit of happiness. Obviously, happiness is not easily obtained.  Some people believe it is a myth.  Yet some people claim that they are truly happy.  People have been claiming this for centuries.  The truth is, happiness can be found in a life with Jesus Christ.

Bad things still happen.  Happy people still get sad, still get angry, but they have somewhere to take these feelings.  They have a personal relationship with a personal God, a God who knows all their wants, all their needs, before they even ask.  When they feel unhappy, they are able to go to God.  This brings peace.  This brings joy.  This makes them happy.

In John 15, Christ tells us that He is the vine, and that God is the gardener.  We, the believers, are the vine’s branches, and we bear fruit.  This is an apt metaphor, because it shows us that God wants us to be fruitful.  Verse 8 says, “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

By living well, by bearing fruit, we glorify God.  God wants us to be happy.  Our happiness glorifies Him.  Our happiness makes God happy.

In this same chapter, Jesus tells us that we cannot bear fruit unless we remain in the vine.  Is it possible that true happiness is actually impossible, unless we try it via the vine, via Jesus Christ?

In Verse 7, Christ says, “If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you.”  This sounds too simple, doesn’t it?  If we remain in Christ, if we meditate on His Word, keep His Word in our hearts, we can ask for anything our hearts desire.  And according to this verse, it is God’s true desire to grant us our desires.

In Verse 11, Jesus says, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

Sometimes it is not easy to believe in these promises.  No, faith is not supposed to be easy.  If it were, then everybody would be faithful.  Faith requires a willful submission to beliefs that sometimes won’t make sense to us.

Hebrews 11:1 tells us, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”  It’s not supposed to be easy.  But we are called to do it anyway.

In Matthew 17, Christ says, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

If faith is the size of a mustard seed can move mountains, if with faith in God, nothing is impossible, doesn’t that make our individual happiness seem like a fairly simple task?

Not only does God want us to be happy, but it is a simple undertaking for Him.  He’s the God of the universe, of all that has been and will be.  Surely He can make me happy.  But I have to have faith.

Even when things go wrong, we need to have faith.  The Bible says, “He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

Believe in God does not create a protective bubble around us.  We see crime.  We see cancer.  We see war.  We see these things, and we ask ourselves, why?  We ask God, why?  We wonder how we can ever be happy in a world so torn.

But Romans 8:28 tells us, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.”  All these things happening in the world, all these things that hurt us and confuse us, all these things are somehow going to work for good.

How do we know?  We have to have faith.  We’re back to the mustard seed.  When something bad happens, we have to believe that it is for a greater good, that it is all part of God’s plan.

Sometimes, we even feel guilty for our happiness.  This is the world talking, not the Holy Spirit.  We should never feel guilty for our joy.  Our joy is a gift from God, and by letting the world see our joy, even in the midst of so much pain, we let the world see our faith.  By showing the world our faith, we show them our God.  Our happiness glorifies Him.  Our happiness is a gift from Him.  All we have to do is reach out and accept it.

Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding.” – Proverbs 3:13

“Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” – Proverbs 29:18

If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” – John 13:17