HAPPINESS

I walked outside this morning and I was reminded of how wonderful life is.  The birds were chirping, the sun was shining, my plants are thriving, and the wind was blowing.   It was perfect.  Don’t you wish you could bottle up days like these?  Bottle them so that you would have a prescription for a happy day right at your fingertips. 

It is possible to have true happiness everyday if you really know what happiness is.  Happiness doesn’t come in material wants.  It isn’t the absence of adversity.  True happiness only comes through allowing the Lord to be the center of our souls. 

Jonathan Edwards wrote this profound statement in his sermon entitled, “Nothing upon Earth can represent the Glories of Heaven.”

"The pleasures of loving and obeying, loving and adoring, blessing and praising the Infinite Being, the Best of Beings, the Eternal Jehovah; the pleasures of trusting in Jesus Christ, in contemplating his beauties, excellencies, and glories; in contemplating his love to mankind and to us, in contemplating his infinite goodness and astonishing loving-kindness; the pleasures of [the] communion of the Holy Ghost in conversing with God, the maker and governor of the world; the pleasure that results from the doing of our duty, in acting worthily and excellently; . . . these are the pleasures that are worthy of so noble a creature as a man is" ("Christian Happiness" in Sermons and Discourses 1720-1723, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume 10.

Edwards also stated in another sermon this statement,

Said Edwards: "God created man for nothing else but happiness. He created him only that he might communicate happiness to him" (Sermons and Discourses 1723-1729, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume 14. Edited by Kenneth P. Minkema [New Haven: Yale

University Press, 1997], pp. 145-46). Edited by Wilson H. Kimnach [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992], pp. 305-06).

God created us to be happy.  He created us to find everything we need from being connected to Him. 

We can find God’s prescription for happiness in the book of Psalm’s. 

Psalm 1:1-3

New International Version (NIV)

Psalm 1

1 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,

2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and who meditates on his law day and night.

3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.

Psalms begins with “Blessed is the one.”  Blessed is the one that walks with the Lord, blessed is the one who finds joy in serving Him and finds peace in His everlasting love.  Blessed is the one who disconnects from those that aren’t following the ways of the Lord.  When we are truly happy we are like a tree that is planted next to the streams of water.  Our roots soak up the nutrients and we grow tall and strong.  Because of this we do not wither, we produce much fruit.

It is only through Him and because of Him that we have true happiness.  He created us to be happy.  When we understand true happiness comes only from the Lord we grow and we thrive.  Our light shines for others to see our joy.  WE soak up all the nutrients around us that the lord gives us.  We are strong because of Him.  Because of basking in happiness we produce much fruit.  Enjoy everyday because of Him!