Got Happiness? You
Can Learn how! Captain Kelly Durant 8-5-12
Phil 4:11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have
learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.12 I know both how
to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am
instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
2. Weddings are happy occasions, right? At my daughter’s
wedding the cake got too hot in the delivery car on the way over and it sort of
tilted to the side. My daughter, who is for the most part a perfectionist, was
upset that her once-for-a-lifetime cake was looking sad and leaning to the
side. I laughed and said, “Look, it looks like the leaning tower of Pizza!” She laughed but just a
little. We sort of shifted it back into place, and actually few people really even
noticed!
Her happy and almost perfect wedding could have been
ruined, right? Well, her happiness could have been if the focus would have
stayed only on the negative! Everything else was perfect so why fret? Later we
laugh about the awkwardness!
3. For happiness, you and I must add more laughter and fun creativity
in our lives to save the day because critical disheartening situations will
always happen!
You and I can find happiness when we accept the fact that it
doesn’t really matter that everything in this life will never ever exactly be
the way you or I want it to be! Just let yourself be amused by the
imperfections, mistakes, and the humor that God is allowing! Perfection can
take away from happiness since it allows no space for humor. Laughter is a form
of happiness, do you not agree?
In all life’s activities you and I will at times have a lot
of good things going on and we are happy, yet at other times we may not have
much good going on at all! In life there are exhilarating moments, yet many frustrating
moments as well, not to mention a whole gamut of emotions. These multiple emotions
confuse the psyche making us believe we are not really happy most of the time. But
let’s see the big picture.
4. We can generally be happy because we have God’s love and
we are enjoying Him forever, but those without God and his funny sense of humor
can never ever be happy because He is the source of the energetic, life-giving
spirit of happiness! Our Father God loves, saves, and provides for us and He is
taking care of us for what? He does it for our happiness! God is empathetic, He
enjoys our happiness!
Abraham Lincoln said that “People are just as happy as they
make up their minds to be”. Freewill allows us to choose to be happy, believe
in God or not, and people take the choice to be happy or not! Does this sound too
simplistic to be true? Let’s take a look at the people of faith.
5. Paul the Apostle suffered a lot in his life but even in
prison he wrote that, ‘in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content
(happy).’ He was probably at that moment while writing, feeling cold, eating
horrible food, and sleeping on a smelly prison floor! Roman prisons were a lot
worse than ours today!
His contentment or happiness seems so contradictory yet Paul
produced some of his greatest letters, the Epistles, while living in terrible
conditions locked up in jail! And he was happy but how did he mange that? He
says it very clear in verse 11; He says, “ for I have learned”...he learned
contentment, or happiness!
Ask yourself, “How can I learn to be content and happy?”
(repeat)
6. To be happy you and I must accept that happiness comes
from God by our practice of the acceptance of it. But what is happiness anyway?
Happiness is so elusive because we know
it is something different to each person.
Happiness for the people with the mindset of the world
comes with more money, more fame, and the ability to indulge in all the
pleasures one desires, right? The reality is most of them with these things
live very depressed full of guilt for their abusiveness and they go down the
road of consuming a lot of drugs and alcohol
to alleviate their pain because they are never reaching a satisfaction or
happiness with what they have gotten already! It is like they are the donkey
chasing the carrot on the stick the rider holds out in front of them!
Happiness, as defined by the dictionary, is a mental or
emotional state of well-being characterized by positive or pleasant emotions
ranging from contentment to intense joy.
In Acts 13:52 It sates, “The disciples were filled with joy
and with the Holy Ghost.” So, asking God
for the Holy Ghost to be with you will make you happy! But for fun let’s do the standardized self-test
of happiness so you can rate yourself from 1-7.
1 = strongly disagree 2 = disagree 3 = slightly disagree 4
= neither agree nor disagree 5 = slightly agree 6 = agree 7 = strongly agree 7.
__ 1. In most ways my life is close to my ideal.
__ 2. The conditions of my life are excellent.
__ 3. I am satisfied with my life.
__ 4. So far I have gotten the important things I want in
life.
__ 5. If I could live my life over, I would change almost
nothing.
If you determine you are not so happy, don’t worry. God can
use your dissatisfaction to make you want you to do a lot more for Him!
8. I do hope you will take a whole different attitude about
your situation to just be resolved to be happy in life despite whatever
conditions you are in! Each person must take the decision to stop the obsessive
preoccupied-ness of selfish concerns.
We live in a sad fallen world full of suffering and sin. I personally
will never be never fully be happy, and I think no true altruistic Christian ever
will be totally happy in this life either, as long as we observe all of
creation living under oppressions caused by cruel people provoking exploitations,
injustices, and abuse.
So, in my opinion, in order to be happy with ourselves, we
will need to do something positive to alleviate this terrible situation for those
in pain by actively sharing love, peace, and salvation! It sounds contradictory
but many people have told me while doing disaster relief that those days had
been some of the happiest days of their lives! And for me too! I am most happy
when I am in the position of helping someone who needs happiness. It works, sewing
good produces happiness!
9. Do you consider yourself to be happy despite your
situation as Paul? I am sure many of you would say yes because you think it is
the Christian thing to say, but the reality is most people are actually not
very happy in life most of the time! People are self-focused while 1/3 of the
world did not eat today! Hundreds of millions lived depressed. With the people
in the world so sad, how is it possible to improve in our attitude and positive
outlook? We can do something and that is count on strength from Jesus Christ.
We must claim the promise verse of Phil. 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which
strengtheneth me. Did you ever notice that this verse is within the context of
being able to do all things implying to remain happy despite all the bad
conditions?
Let’s discover some more principles about what the Bible
has to say about happiness.
10. Psalm 144:15 Happy is that people, that is in such a
case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD. We are happy just because we have our
God as our God! The closer we get to God, the more happier we are!
Psalm 146:5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his
help, whose hope is in the LORD his God: We are happy because God
helps us!
Proverbs 3:13 Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the
man that getteth understanding. We are happy because we gain
wisdom in God.
Proverbs 14:21 He that despiseth his neighbour sinneth: but
he that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he. So we are happy if we serve the poor!
Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish:
but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. So to obey God’s commands make us
happy!
11. And Jesus confirms the same thing about obeying His
commands in John 13:17 If ye
know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.
It has been said that
one of the keys to happiness is a bad memory (and I know most of us really
would like to forget a lot of bad things about some people) but I would like to
add that we must keep a good memory as well of all the good that God has done
for you and me in the past!
Prov. 13:13 A merry
heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is
broken. 15 All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry
heart hath a continual feast.
12. We can have a feast
with God every day! We can feel good most of the time and have happiness despite
the evil in the world but you and I must choose it! It will come as a
consequence of you and me learning to apply the following from what we have
studied in scripture:
By just being happy no
matter what the conditions are!
By getting closer to
God and getting more of the Holy Ghost!
By trusting in God to
help you and me with all the things of life!
By gaining more wisdom
and observing God’s humor!
By helping others with
a need which is sewing good to reap it back!
By obeying God’s
commands and those that Jesus taught!
13. Will you pray to
change your attitude? So many times we compare ourselves with each other; who
has life the best and we get mad about those who appear to be happier than us.
What a mistake!
To live unhappy just do
all the opposite of what the Bible teaches: be a person who is always
discontent with everyone and everything, always jealous or critical of others,
not trusting in God always worrying, never learning to be conformed and be
thankful to God for life’s lessons, and
never helping anyone since you are so important and the universe revolves
around you.
Unhappy people usually
talk loud and show their selves aggressively on the outside but on the inside
they are actually weak and stressed. Do you want strength?
Happiness is
strength! Nehemiah 8:10b (a.Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat
the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is
prepared: for this day is holy unto our LORD: neither be ye sorry;) b. for the
joy of the LORD is your strength.
Don’t envy anyone
thinking they are happier that you because they have more than you. Get busy
making your life closer to God taking the advice of the scriptures so you will
reap happiness! Having God’s love is more than enough for each one of us to be
happy! But if you are not so happy,
pray for the change you need!
You will feel better,
and everyone else around you will to! They will see your serious face change
into a happy one, and start hearing your questionable comments become praises
to God! Don’t accept your self as you are! Don’t be dry and serious be happy! And you can become even happier than what you are right now! Ask God to be able “to do all
things”, especially to be happy!
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