Happy are the people whose God is the Lord!
-Psalm 144:15 NKJV-
This is a Psalm of David. “Happy are the people whose God is the Lord!" This is the way David concludes Psalm 144. In the first half of this psalm, he cries out for help. In the last half, he sings praises to the Lord because of the help He gave him.
Happiness is one of the great paradoxes in life - it can be found in almost any set of circumstances, at any level of life. It defies, income, health, security, environment, education and ability.
Happiness is one of the most sought-after qualities of life. In their quest for wealth, power and education, men and women’s search for happiness always seems to be one jump ahead of them. William Jordan wrote, “Happiness consists not of having but of being, not of possessing, but of enjoying. A martyr at the stake may happiness that a king on the throne might envy….For what a man has, he may owe to others; what he rests on him alone.”
Dr. Harold J. Sala spent time once in South America with Wycliff Bible Translators whose house had just burned down. The loss meant that absolutely all the couple had was wiped out, apart from memories. Yet, he said, “I have never met happier people.” The night before his house burned, the owner of the house had read:
“Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses” (Luke 12:15).
The greatest book for successful living is the Bible-written over a period of 1,600 years by some 40 authors. If you take time to look up “happiness” in a concordance, you may be surprised to find it does not appear. Yet in the pages of God’s Word is the formula for real happiness.
In the Gospel of John, we read that when Jesus called men, He spoke but two words: “Follow me!” (see John 1:43). Jesus didn’t promise fame or fortune. Mark says He called men for three reasons: one, to be with Him; two, to spread the gospel; and, three, to have authority over the work of Satan.
No matter what your status in life, you will never find the kind of happiness God wants you to have until you begin with first things first. If happiness is a mirage, a hallucination that always escapes you, take inventory. The secret is being, not having.
Pastor Gideon