“I want to be happy!” That statement is an expression of every person’s heart desire. Followed closely by the next question: “Why can’t I be happy?”

God wants us to be happy too, to live above our circumstances.  He wants us to have a sense of well being, peace and contentment in our lives.  There will be happiness for all of us in heaven, the Master says this to his servant in Matt 25:21, “come and enter into your Master’s happiness.”

In Ecc 2:26 NIV we can see that happiness is promised for now, while we are alive:  “To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness…”

Ecc 3:12 “I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink and find satisfaction in all his toil – this is a gift of God.”

happy-daisyHappiness is born out of right living, pleasing God with your life in how you think, how you honor God in your life and how you serve Him.

But the root word for happiness is similar to happening, suggesting that how happy we feel has a lot to do with our circumstances and how we feel about them.  Which would explain why there are seasons of happiness in our lives, and when those seasons are gone, we long for them again.  It also explains why happiness is not our constant experience.  Life and circumstances change, but more importantly our feelings are changeable.

It would seem that happiness is more a decision as to what our heart condition will be, despite our circumstances.

As I have been meditating on happiness and our experience of it, I have realized that as we choose our heart condition, there are some areas of our lives which we can address, which when considered and improved, can contribute to our experience of happiness, exponentially.  They are:

  1. Settle the question in your heart of God’s love for you, once and for all.  I am loved because God’s word tells me so.
  2. Stop Comparing yourself to other people.  People who compare are miserable.
  3. Stop Whining or complaining about your life, it is wrong and it takes your focus off on how God has provided for you.
  4. Do not engage in Self Pity, it creeps up on you and will kill your faith.
  5. Practice Contentment with what God has already given you and trust Him with your needs.
  6. Practice Thanksgiving, which focuses you on the blessings you have already received.
  7. Praise the Lord, which causes you to remember WHO you are trusting.
  8. Practice Love in your relationships, allowing people to be free and entrust them to the Lord.
  9. Start living consistent with what you believe, let your walk, match your talk.
  10. Pray continually, all the time.

Many of us just need to work on these areas of our hearts and we would be a lot happier than we are.

Father, thank you that Your love for me includes wanting me to experience happiness in my life.  Help me to honestly examine my heart in these areas to identify if I can improve my experience of happiness by adjusting my heart attitudes.  Thank you for being faithful to me in all circumstances and that Your goodness and mercy follow me all the days of my life (Psalm 23)

Be sure to follow the links to previous posts.

Happiness to YOU in 2019!