Happiness A Sign Of The Christian Life

Weekly Message

Tom Seymour

February 23, 2014

Happiness A Sign Of The Christian Life

How can people who have not sought a close walk with God live a truly happy Life? The answer is, they can’t.

Sure, people in the secular world can have what passes for happiness. By earning lots of money, we can buy things that please us and therefore, we are happy…well, at least for a while. But happiness based upon material possessions doesn't last very long. In fact, it has an expiration date. After a while, our possessions stop pleasing us and so we search for more and more of whatever it may take to help us think that we are happy. We may have a form of happiness, but without God, we are never fulfilled.

And it’s not only material possessions that blind us to the true nature of happiness. Some people revel in their knowledge. Some just wait for every opportunity to boast of their extensive education. And when the listener evidences a “ho-hum” response, it only aggravates the self-loving types.

If we judge everyone else according to how they compare with ourselves, and we believe that we ourselves are somehow “special” because of our material, academic and other accolades, we are on a path to renouncing true happiness forever.

So how can we, any of us, find true happiness? First, we must walk with God on a daily basis. When we turn to him for everything, that is, when we recognize that God is in everything we think, say and do, we can then leave the door open for him to act and work in our lives. Otherwise, he is just a silent observer. We must invite God into our lives. When we do that, amazing things begin to happen.

Next, having established our relationship with God, we need to review our relationship with other human beings. And if those relationships aren’t operating according to Godly principals, we must overhaul them.

The person who judges everyone else must cease judging. It’s human nature to form opinions and most of us form an opinion of people we meet upon our first meeting. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking of judging from an attitude of superiority. When we think that we are smarter, better, more qualified than everyone else, then we cannot deal with anyone else on anything like an even playing field.

So we must humble ourselves. In order to do that, we must first humble ourselves to God and then we will quite naturally find a new degree of humility in our dealings with people. Without a humble attitude, we are spiritually doomed. We may think that people like us, but when we find out that they only abide us because they must, it becomes a tremendously traumatic experience.

But God can help us to find humility. He does that by giving us a certain knowledge, a conviction, that what we have asked has become a reality. So ask for humility and you will gain it.

So what happens next? Well, just as the apostle Paul said that love does not remember wrongs, we must do just that. It’s like the person who, at the most inappropriate times, brings up someone else’s past offenses…rather they were truly bad or only just bad as perceived in that person’s mind. No matter. The meeting is ruined. The dinner is ruined. The relationship may well become pitched toward an irreconcilable end.

Finally, none of us is an island unto himself or herself. Anyone who thinks so is certainly unhappy. It takes first, a relationship with God and next, relationships with members of our own kind. And in order to have a good relationship, we must work toward a good relationship.

We need friends. Not just acquaintances, but true friends. And what is a friend? A friend is someone you love, in the Godly sense of the word and also, someone in whom you can place your trust.

Will friends ever betray your love and trust? Sure they will. We all sprang from the two original forbears and because of that, are sinful creatures by nature. But because sometimes people let us down, does that mean that we should not trust anyone ever again? By no means.

A righteous person may fall down seven times, but that same person gets back up seven times. And, as Jesus said, “Seven times seven.” We cannot penalize ourselves and our personal happiness by holding the world at a arms length simply because someone, somewhere, failed us.

We as Christians are told to serve as an example to the world. Our Christian walk should therefore, be visible to everyone we meet. We should let our light shine so that people we meet recognize that light and want to be bathed in it. But if we are not happy, our light remains cloaked, covered by an opaque cloth.

So learn to be happy with every new day God gives you on this earth. Be thankful for each new sunrise and don’t disparage the sunset because a new day is sure to follow. Don’t judge others, only judge yourself. Find peace with your walk with God and in your relationship with humanity. Appreciate every blessing, no matter how small, because somewhere in the world, someone else is starving for that same blessing. And walk in humility before God and man.

Do these things and you will be truly happy. And the world will surely note your happiness.