Tag Archives: Pursuit of happiness

Posted on

The Attainment of Happiness

Read Psalm 1

Featured Verse: Psalm 1:1-2

“Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers.
But they delight in the law of the Lord,
meditating on it day and night.”

Every human being who has ever walked this planet has this in common: The desire to be happy. In fact, our most revered national document, the Declaration of Independence, proclaims that the pursuit of happiness is our inalienable right, universally endowed by the Creator himself.

Now we can pursue happiness until we are blue in the face, and most of us do, but there is just one way we will ever attain it: By following God’s “roadmap”. The Psalmist called it “the law of the Lord,” Today, we would call it “the Bible.”

In this opening song from the songbook of the human race, the Psalms, we’re told that happiness comes by completely, deliberately and consistently ordering our life according to the full counsel of God’s Word. Not just a favorite verse here and there, mind you, or a Bible reading when it strikes our fancy, but through a “day and night” absorption of the whole “law of God.” Furthermore, true blessedness and lasting joy comes by completely, deliberately and consistently rejecting the humanistic definition of and path to happiness.

The Psalmist calls for a complete ordering of our life around the Word of God—“meditating on it day and night.” So here is the most important question you will be asked this year: Are you? Are you reading it regularly, and not just reading it, but absorbing it? Are you not just absorbing it, but are you figuring out ways to apply it to your daily life—your situations, your responses, your decisions, your planning?

May I suggest that before you do anything else—listen to the news, read the paper, look over your email, have coffee with your posse, which is perhaps the modern equivalent of “walking,” “standing” and “sitting” with anyone else before you get counsel from God—that you carve out time and then ruthlessly guard that time to read, absorb and apply God’s Word. And then discipline yourself to bring what you’ve read back to mind at various parts of the day, to make sure your thoughts, actions, interactions, responses and accomplishments have been true to the plumbline of God’s Word.

By the way, when “meditating day and night” on Scripture becomes the “organic” practice of your life, the discipline of daily Bible reading will have turned into the delight of practicing the presence of God. And when you practice the presence of God, you will experience the presence of God. That is truly what the joyful, blessed and happy life is all about.

“The Bible redirects my will, cleanses my emotions, enlightens my mind, and quickens my total being.”
 —E. Stanley Jones

Posted on

Psalm 1: The Attainment of Happiness

Read Psalm 1

Featured Verse: Psalm 1:1-2

“Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers.
But they delight in the law of the Lord,
meditating on it day and night.”

Every human being who has ever walked this planet has this in common: The desire to be happy. In fact, our most revered national document, the Declaration of Independence, proclaims that the pursuit of happiness is our inalienable right, universally endowed by the Creator himself.

Now we can pursue happiness until we are blue in the face, and most of us do, but there is just one way we will ever attain it: By following God’s “roadmap”. The Psalmist called it “the law of the Lord,” Today, we would call it “the Bible.”

In this opening song from the songbook of the human race, the Psalms, we’re told that happiness comes by completely, deliberately and consistently ordering our life according to the full counsel of God’s Word. Not just a favorite verse here and there, mind you, or a Bible reading when it strikes our fancy, but through a “day and night” absorption of the whole “law of God.” Furthermore, true blessedness and lasting joy comes by completely, deliberately and consistently rejecting the humanistic definition of and path to happiness.

The Psalmist calls for a complete ordering of our life around the Word of God—“meditating on it day and night.” So here is the most important question you will be asked this year: Are you? Are you reading it regularly, and not just reading it, but absorbing it? Are you not just absorbing it, but are you figuring out ways to apply it to your daily life—your situations, your responses, your decisions, your planning?

May I suggest that before you do anything else—listen to the news, read the paper, look over your email, have coffee with your posse, which is perhaps the modern equivalent of “walking,” “standing” and “sitting” with anyone else before you get counsel from God—that you carve out time and then ruthlessly guard that time to read, absorb and apply God’s Word. And then discipline yourself to bring what you’ve read back to mind at various parts of the day, to make sure your thoughts, actions, interactions, responses and accomplishments have been true to the plumbline of God’s Word.

By the way, when “meditating day and night” on Scripture becomes the “organic” practice of your life, the discipline of daily Bible reading will have turned into the delight of practicing the presence of God. And when you practice the presence of God, you will experience the presence of God. That is truly what the joyful, blessed and happy life is all about.

“The Bible redirects my will, cleanses my emotions, enlightens my mind, and quickens my total being.”
 —E. Stanley Jones

Posted on

The Right To Be Happy?

Read Romans 5

“And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that
tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character;
and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint…”
(Romans 5:3-4)

Food For Thought… Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that each American, and I assume, every human being on earth, ought to have the right to the pursuit of happiness. That is a good thing, depending on the definition of happiness—which I suspect, is an inexhaustible subject that we are still trying to work out to this day, nearly 300 years later.

Jefferson said, mind you, the pursuit of happiness, but he didn’t say we had the right to be happy. Popular culture, driven largely by the modern media, has fed us the line that we have a “divine right” to be happy for a generation or two now, but I think we who follow Christ would be much better off if we were disabused of that notion.

We do not have the right to be happy! We do, however, have the right to a far better attribute: The right to be holy. Jesus Christ died on the cross to make sure of that. That is what Paul is spending a great deal of time describing here in Romans 5. In fact, Paul begins this chapter with these great words:

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” (Romans 5:1-2)

We have been justified by our faith. That justification came by Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross, by which his righteousness was imputed to us. Since we are righteous through Christ by his death and through our faith, we are declared holy in the sight of a holy God, and therefore secure for all eternity. By this, we rightly glory in this unshakable hope—which we might say is what true happiness is all about.

But there is more. Not only do we rejoice in this hope of the future glory of salvation soon to be realized, we rejoice in the glory of our present sufferings. Why? Because as Paul says, those tribulations loosen this present world’s grip on our loyalties and produce in us the stuff of heaven: perseverance in our faith, Christ-like character, and the unshakeable hope of eternity.

It is time we redefine happiness. True happiness is the imputed righteousness of Christ. True happiness is the hope of the glory of God. True happiness is the very tribulations that would make the normal earthling unhappy, but reminds the heaven-bound believer of that very thing: that they are bound for heaven.

That’s the happiness I want to pursue.

Prayer… Lord, help me to embrace my present sufferings as temporary reminders of your grace and my future glory.

One more thing… “If we really believe that home is elsewhere and that this life is a ‘wandering to find home,’ why should we not look forward to the arrival?” — C.S. Lewis