Unlocking happiness

Psalm 37:4 (ESV)

Delight yourself in the Lord,

    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

I have heard all my life, “Nobody can steal your joy unless you give them permission first.”

I’m so thankful for those words of wisdom because they are absolutely right!

Every single day, we have two choices: we can simply react to everything happening around us, or we can take action and create the lives we want to live.

Don’t give someone else the keys to your happiness!

I’ve known people who have everything they’ve ever wanted, but they’re miserable. No matter what people do for them, they’re always blaming somebody for something. On a bright sunny day, they find the one cloud in the sky. Then I’ve known people who have gone through hard situations, but they’re still the happiest people I know. Nothing can steal their joy. Why? Because every person’s happiness is ultimately their choice! If we put our happiness in other people’s hands, we’re going to be disappointed.

It’s incredibly freeing when we take back the responsibility for how we feel. When we react to others’ actions, it sets us up to be the victim. When we maintain the fact that we own our emotions, we free ourselves to be victorious in all circumstances!

Matthew 16:19 (NIV) says, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

The keys are in your hands—what are you going to do with them?

Dear Lord, thank You for giving us joy. Help us to take the responsibility for how we feel. Help us not let those around us steal our joy. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.  

Money

1 Peter 1:18-19  (ESV)

18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

“There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else there’s MasterCard.” That popular ad of some years ago suggested that the credit card would help us get the things that make life better—things money can buy.

When one stops to think about it, though, there are quite a few things money can’t buy. While it can buy exotic and luxurious vacations, it can’t really make a marriage better or improve a relationship with your kids. It can pay for surgeries and medicines, but there are some illnesses that surgery and medicine can’t heal. It can make you very popular, but it can’t buy you true friendship.

Money also can’t buy a clear conscience and provide peace with God. It cannot purchase the certainty of life in heaven after you die. No, all the riches in the world can’t buy us one ounce of freedom from a guilty conscience or from the fear of dying.

For these crucial things that money can’t buy, there is Jesus. His blood was the full payment for our freedom from guilt, fear, and death. The Bible teaches: “You know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed…, but with the precious blood of Christ.”

Imagine you are about to be executed—deservedly so—for crimes you have committed. Imagine being locked in a prison cell, waiting for the end. Then your brother walks into that prison and takes your place. He dies and you go free because your sentence is carried out on your innocent brother. He purchased (redeemed) your life with his.

Come back to reality. All people are sinners and deserved to die eternally. But Jesus, the perfect Son of God, came from heaven to take our place. He bore the punishment our sins had earned so that we could be free from the prison of eternal death. When the debt of our sin was far beyond our ability to pay, in love he paid that debt with his own blood at Calvary’s cross.

Money’s great. But there are some things money can’t buy, such as a relationship with God. This is a free gift of God’s love, paid for with the precious blood of Jesus.

Dear Lord, Joy, hope and comfort are ours. Knowing that our sins are forgiven and our relationship with God is restored by the blood that you shed on the cross. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Millions don't promise happiness but God does.

Matthew 6:19-21 (ESV)

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust[a] destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Remember reading about the record setting $640 million mega millions jackpot? Many Americans were gobbling up tickets for a chance to win. The lucky winner stands to win a lump sum of $462 million before taxes using the cash option.

However, as Fox News reports, “winning the Big One isn't a guaranteed ticket to the good life, as these previous winners can attest”:

Jack Whittaker: This West Virginia businessman won $315 million in the Powerball lottery in 2002, the largest jackpot ever from a single ticket in American history at the time. After being robbed of $545,000 in cash while at a strip club, Whittaker's granddaughter and daughter were later found dead, and Whittaker was sued by Caesars Atlantic City casino for bouncing $1.5 million worth of checks to cover gambling losses.

Juan Rodriguez: This New York City parking attendant was earning less than $30,000 in 2004 when he won $149 million in a Mega Millions drawing. But soon after taking the lump sum option of $88 million, his wife filed for divorce and was awarded half of his winnings.

Fred Topous, Jr.: Topous won $57 million, the seventh-largest jackpot in Michigan state history in June 2008, but eventually took a $33 million lump sum. The convicted sex offender, who was released from prison in 2006, needs to register as a sex offender until 2024.

Billy Bob Harrell, Jr.: This preacher working as a stockboy at Home Depot struck it rich in 1997, winning $31 million in Texas' lottery. Some 20 months later, after divorcing his wife and buying a half-dozen homes for relatives, he committed suicide using a shotgun.

Jeffrey Dampier: In 1996, Dampier and his wife won $20 million in Illinois' lottery and used the money to buy relatives homes and to start a gourmet popcorn shop in Florida. Nine years later, Dampier was kidnapped and killed by his sister-in-law and her boyfriend who targeted him for money.

No, “winning the Big One isn't a guaranteed ticket to the good life,” because money is not the key to the good life, much less eternal life!

Jesus said, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also"

WHY NOT not store up treasures on earth? Because Jesus warned us that earthly treasures are subject to rust, decay, and theft. In fact, this WORLD and ALL of its possessions will one day be GONE!

The GREATEST Treasure is to recognize that Jesus Christ paid the debt for our sin by dying on the cross for our behalf and to accept His offer of salvation and eternal life on His terms.

Jesus will save those who place their faith and trust in Him, turn from their sins in repentance, confess Him before men, and are baptized  in His name for the forgiveness of sins.

The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 1-in-176 million. The odds of those millions satisfying your deepest longings and keeping those millions for eternity is ZERO!

However, the Greatest Treasure – the One that truly satisfies and gives eternal life – is available to you today FREE OF CHARGE if you will accept His offer on His terms.

Dear Lord help us share the goodness of what You offer for each and every one. We thank You there is nothing we can do to earn it but that it is a free gift to all. In The Name of Jesus, Amen. 

Can Riches Make us Truly Happy?

Proverbs 28:6 (NIV)

Better the poor whose walk is blameless

    than the rich whose ways are perverse.

Are the rich truly free of worry? Or is it possible they are a bit more distressed than most commoners like you and me?

Let's think about it. Being rich is not easy at all. You have constant worry -- about your possessions, your protection, your investments ... It never ends! Imagine having to hire a multitude of personnel to guarantee a semi-quasi "peaceful" and less-stressful life! Lawyers, tax-consultants, insurance agents, investment advisers, body guards ... This list could go on and on.

When oil was found in Pithole, Pennsylvania, in 1865, it attracted a lot of people whose only goal was to get rich quick. But they soon realized there was a price tag attached to their dream. Equipment was costly, rent was costly, the parcel of "promised" land was costly, food was more costly in this neighborhood than anywhere else, barrels were costly, and even the transport of oil barrels was costly.

It's true that at first the transport fee was feasible: 1$ per barrel, which would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 20$ in our day and age. But almost overnight the charge tripled to 3$ a barrel! Oh, there was a "good" reason behind the price increase: Carrying 360 pound barrels over steep, muddy trails shortened the lives of the horses and mules employed in this endeavor. And since they worked non-stop around the clock, they needed to be replaced regularly!

Now let’s take a look at the about the plight of these poor animals?

Then came Samuel Van Syckel, who saw an opportunity to become rich by cutting the cost of transportation back to 1$ a barrel. And he wouldn't need the help of donkeys or horses! Instead he built 5.5 miles of 2 inch wrought iron pipe, from Pithole to Oil Creek. In fact, he was the first one to successfully transport oil via a pipeline!

Until lengths of the pipe mysteriously were torn up in the dark, that is. It seems he had made some enemies with the rough, tough teamsters who ended with no more cargo or dying horses!

No problem, armed guards were hired to patrol the line.

And you can well imagine that this was not the end of the story. More complications were foreseen in the near future. We are talking about the mighty dollar after all!

Remember money can buy neither peace nor happiness!

Dear Lord, we thank You for the happiness You bring to each of us. Help us not focus on the things around us to bring happiness but to completely trust in You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Showing Love

Luke 6:31-36 (NIV)

31 Do to others as you would have them do to you. 32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

A few years ago, a six-year-old boy from Oregon suffered burns over 85% of his body. His condition was so severe that several doctors gave up and one hospital would not admit him because they thought he would die anyway.

His life was saved, however, by eight courageous and committed people -- his parents, three nurses and three doctors. The nurses emerged as the true heroines in this real-life drama. After other nurses had quit, these women took eight-hour shifts with the boy, seeing him through skin grafts, operations, crucial periods in which death almost gained victory, and dull, dragging days of rehabilitation. The boy grew to dislike them, as he innocently thought they caused his intense pain.

His room was like a dungeon. It measured 12 feet by 12 feet. The door was tightly shut, shades were drawn, heat blazed from a gooseneck lamp shining as a substitute for blankets. The humidity was so high the walls dripped with moisture, and dank air smelled of burned flesh and chlorine-soaked dressings.

The nurses stayed with him, dressed in caps, gowns, masks and gloves as if they were assisting an operation. Within an hour they would be soaked with perspiration. For 14 desperately long months these dedicated three gave their all to the ailing boy. Then, one day, he finally climbed from his bed and walked.

It was a great day! The nurses were rewarded for their tireless effort. The lives of all three were so deepened and their sense of satisfaction so great after fighting off the temptation to quit for 14 months, that each said they'd put forth the effort again.

What caused them to feel so satisfied with their work? One might say it was because they found a way to truly serve someone in need. And in so doing, they accomplished something significant. Like American educator Booker T. Washington said, "Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others."

Someone observed, "It's easy to make a buck...it's a lot tougher to make a difference." But it's the way to be happy.

Are you willing to invest in the life of another?  The greatest love we can show is loving somebody else and helping them when they can’t help themselves. Jesus did that for each of us when He died on the cross and rose from the dead. Let’s share that love today.

Dear Lord, we pray that we would share your love today in all that we do. Bring someone to us today that we can help through Your love. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

True Happiness

Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 (NIV)

12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.

There once was a very wealthy and successful man. He had more money than he could ever spend and he was admired and looked up to by his community. Still, he knew that something was missing in his life. He wasn't happy. All his life he had pursued happiness and strived for happiness but had never been able to find it.

Then one day he heard about a hidden temple in Nepal that had a special room that contained the secret to happiness. He immediately sold all that he owned and set out to find this hidden temple. After many years of searching and countless hardships he arrived there. He was weary and pennyless, but he knew that none of that mattered now that he had found the temple. He asked a wise, smiling monk if he could enter the special room. The monk agreed and showed him the stairs leading to the room. He climbed them with legs shaking with anticipation and slowly opened the door. He stared into the room with sunlight streaming through the window and saw what he had come so far to find. There hanging on the wall was the secret of happiness. The man gazed at his reflection in the mirror and laughed.

It is time that we all realized that we are the secret to our own happiness. Happiness is a choice that we make within. God loves us and gives each one of us the ability to fill our lives with love, joy, peace, happiness, and oneness with Him. We need only choose to do so moment by moment and day by day. It doesn't matter what our outer circumstances are either, because the Kingdom of Heaven is within us. Don’t spend the rest of your life searching the world for happiness then. Just look in the mirror and laugh. Just let the happiness flow from your heart, mind, and soul until it fills your life and the lives of all those around you.

Dear Lord, thank you for the happiness that You bring to each of us. Help us look to You for that happiness instead of all the things around us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

A Lesson Learned From a Hummingbird.

Psalm 11:1 (NIV)

In the Lord I take refuge.

    How then can you say to me:

    “Flee like a bird to your mountain.

I read this story that reminded me of how we each are. The story goes like this.

I had a day off last week and spent part of it doing some yard work. After I finished, I went through the garage to get back into the house. But, as I was climbing the stairs, I heard a loud fluttering of wings above me. My first thought was that a large moth or small bat had gotten itself trapped, but then I realized it was a tiny bird - a hummingbird! Its wings were flapping with great intensity as the bird slammed itself repeatedly into the ceiling. It was clearly intent on flying upward, but there was no way out in that direction No doubt the poor bird had to be exhausted, and it was evident that it wasn't going to find its way out by itself.

Using my hand, I carefully guided the hummingbird out into the middle of the garage, thinking it would have no trouble finding an exit with the garage door wide open. The bird quickly found a resting spot, but when it tried to leave, it once again headed upward, banging itself into the ceiling over and over. Could it not see the wide open door with freedom just a few feet away? Why was it intent on searching for an escape route straight up? Finally, with a little assistance from Joshua, the bird made its way outside.

As I read this story I couldn't help but think how much like that hummingbird we all are. The difference is that our search is for happiness and the "meaning of life." We search in all the wrong places over and over again, looking to material goods or immorality or addictive substances, all without success. And instead of seeing the wide open door that God has provided, we continue to painfully beat our heads in frustration. We try again and again without finding the happiness we crave, so we try even harder. We work longer hours to collect more "stuff", we sample something a little bit stronger. Why are we so blind that we cannot see what God has made available? He wants us to find the freedom of living for Him. Time and again, He gently nudges us in the right direction. But we're so blind (or stubborn?).

Dear Lord, please open our eyes. Help us see we cannot have happiness without you. Thank you for the blessings that you have given to us for us to enjoy. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Happiness is a Choice

There once was a woman who climbed on the bathroom scale after two weeks of butter less toast and chilly jogs around the park. The needle was still stuck on the number where she'd started. This struck her as typical of how things had been going lately. She was destined never to be happy.



As she dressed, scowling at her tight jeans, she found $20 in her pocket. Then her sister called with a funny story. When she hurried out to the car -- angry that she had to get gas -- she discovered her roommate had already filled the tank for her. And this was a woman who thought she'd never be happy.


Every day, it seems, we're flooded with pop-psych advice about happiness. The relentless message is that there's something we're supposed to do to be happy -- make the right choices, or have the right set of beliefs about ourselves. Our Founding Fathers even wrote the pursuit of happiness into the Declaration of Independence.


Coupled with this is the notion that happiness is a permanent condition. If we're not joyful all the time, we conclude there's a problem.


Yet what most people experience is not a permanent state of happiness. It is something more ordinary, a mixture of what essayist Hugh Prather once called "unsolved problems, ambiguous victories and vague defeats -- with few moments of clear peace."


Maybe you wouldn't say yesterday was a happy day, because you had a misunderstanding with your boss. But weren't there moments of happiness, moments of clear peace? Now that you think about it, wasn't there a letter from an old friend, or a stranger who asked where you got such a great haircut? You remember having a bad day, yet those good moments occurred.


While you're walking home with a head full of problems, try to notice the sun set the windows of the city on fire. Listen to the shouts of kids playing basketball in the fading light, and feel your spirits rise, just from having paid attention.


Happiness is an attitude, not a condition. It's cleaning the Venetian blinds while listening to an aria, or spending a pleasant hour organizing your closet. Happiness is your family assembled at dinner. It's in the present, not in the distant promise of a "someday when..." How much luckier we are -- and how much more happiness we experience -- if we can fall in love with the life we're living.


Happiness is a choice. Reach out for it at the moment it appears, like a balloon drifting seaward in a bright blue sky.






"This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."


-Psalm 118:24 (New International Version)






Dear Lord we pray that we would take the time look for the positive things rather than dwell on the negative things. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Does Your Happiness Show?

There once was a very wealthy and successful man. He had more money than he could ever spend and he was admired and looked up to by his community. Still, he knew that something was missing in his life. He wasn’t happy. All his life he had pursued happiness and strived for happiness but had never been able to find it.

Then one day he heard about a hidden temple in Nepal that had a special room that contained the secret to happiness. He immediately sold all that he owned and set out to find this hidden temple. After many years of searching and countless hardships he arrived there. He was weary and pennyless, but he knew that none of that mattered now that he had found the temple. He asked a wise, smiling monk if he could enter the special room. The monk agreed and showed him the stairs leading to the room. He climbed them with legs shaking with anticipation and slowly opened the door. He stared into the room with sunlight streaming through the window and saw what he had come so far to find. There hanging on the wall was the secret of happiness. The man gazed at his reflection in the mirror and laughed.

It is time that we all realized that we are the secret to our own happiness. Happiness is a choice that we make within. God loves us and gives each one of us the ability to fill our lives with love, joy, peace, happiness, and oneness with Him. We need only choose to do so moment by moment and day by day. It doesn’t matter what our outer circumstances are either, because the Kingdom of Heaven is within us. Don’t spend the rest of your life searching the world for happiness then. Just look in the mirror and laugh. Just let the happiness that the Lord gives you flow from your heart, mind, and soul until it fills your life and the lives of all those around you.

Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom.

-2 Chronicles 9:7 (King James)

Dear Lord, We pray that we will let the Joy that you give flow through us and that those around us we see you through our Joy. In Jesus’ Name, Amen