“I don’t mean to say I am perfect. I haven’t learned all I should even yet, but I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ saved me for and wants me to be. No, dear brothers, I am still not all I should be.”
Philippians 3:12-13 (TLB) Humble people are happy people. They never stop growing and learning. The Bible says, “Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith . . . Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it” (2 Corinthians 13:5-9 The Message). Do you give yourself regular checkups? Try this: Wake up every day and ask God, “What do I need to work on today?” This takes humility, but it’s a habit that will lead to happiness. Paul knew the importance of humbly growing and learning. He wrote in Philippians 3:12-13: “I don’t mean to say I am perfect. I haven’t learned all I should even yet, but I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ saved me for and wants me to be. No, dear brothers, I am still not all I should be” (TLB). When Paul wrote this Scripture, he was an older man in prison in Rome. He was at the end of his life. He was an incredibly mature person. Yet he said he hadn’t arrived. If anybody had the right to say, “I’ve arrived spiritually,” it would be the guy who wrote so much of the New Testament. But Paul said, “No, I haven’t arrived. I’m still growing, learning, and becoming more like Christ.” Pride is the trap that so often keeps Christians from following Paul’s example and continuing to grow in Christ. Why? Because when you think you’ve got it all together, you won’t make an effort to become more spiritually mature. Humility, on the other hand, leads to happiness because it makes you teachable. Happiness and humility go together because they cause you to ask, “How can I be a better spouse? How can I be a better friend? How can I be a better boss? How can I be a better follower of Jesus?” When you aren’t asking these questions, you’re missing out because you’ve stopped growing—and God made you to grow. Take a step toward happiness today by humbly praying Psalm 139:23-24: “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (ESV).
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“You must get along with each other. You must learn to be considerate of one another, cultivating a life in common.”
1 Corinthians 1:10 (The Message) Happiness isn’t a matter of luck; it’s a matter of learning. To live a happier life, you need to learn how to work well with others. This is the skill of collaboration. It’s an important skill not often taught in schools, but when learned, it can exponentially increase a person’s happiness. What do you need to learn in order to work well with other people? First, learn to cooperate with others. The church in Philippi sent a man named Epaphroditus to help Paul while he was in prison in Rome. Philippians 2:25 says, “I feel that I must send Epaphroditus—my brother, coworker, and fellow soldier—back to you. You sent him as your personal representative to help me in my need” (GW). By calling Epaphroditus his brother, coworker, and fellow soldier, Paul was using three relational metaphors that represent teamwork. Life together is a family, a fellowship, and a fight. Epaphroditus was a team member. He didn’t shut himself off from the world and become a lone ranger. As believers, we are in the same fight together against Satan, so we need to cooperate with one other—no matter how different we all are. The best place to learn how to do that is in the church. Second, learn to be considerate. Paul mentioned Epaphroditus again in Philippians 2:26: “He has been longing to see all of you and is troubled because you heard that he was sick” (GW). Notice how Paul used two examples of consideration: Paul was considerate of his coworker’s homesickness, and Epaphroditus was considerate about the Philippians’ concern. When you learn to be considerate of other people’s needs, fears, and doubts, you’ll be a happier person. For instance, if you are considerate of your spouse, you’ll have a happy marriage. But if you’re not thoughtful with your words and actions, you’ll have an unhappy marriage. The Bible says, “You must get along with each other. You must learn to be considerate of one another, cultivating a life in common” (1 Corinthians 1:10 The Message). “Cultivating a life in common” takes work. Like a garden that requires cultivation to bear fruit, you’ll see how your effort bears the fruit of happiness and strong relationships. “If you insist on saving your life, you will lose it. Only those who throw away their lives for my sake and for the sake of the Good News will ever know what it means to really live.”
Mark 8:35 (TLB) God wired the universe so that happiness does not come from anything the world has to offer. Happiness comes from service. God designed you to be happiest when you are giving your life away. Why? Because he wants you to become like him—and he gave himself away in love. It’s all about love! “If you insist on saving your life, you will lose it. Only those who throw away their lives for my sake and for the sake of the Good News will ever know what it means to really live” (Mark 8:35 TLB). To have a happy heart, you have to practice service and generosity every day. Matthew 20:28 says, “Even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many” (NLT). Jesus came to serve and give. Those two things will bring more happiness than anything else in your life, and they define what it means to follow Jesus. If you’re not serving, if you’re not giving, then you’re not following Jesus. It’s very simple. God also wired the universe in such a way that the more you give yourself away, the more God gives to you and the more blessed and happier you are. Is your heart growing more generous every year? Are you more generous with your resources this year than you were a year ago? Or are you stuck at the same level of generosity and wondering why you’re also stuck in unhappiness? In Philippians 2:17-18, Paul says, “Your faith makes you offer your lives as a sacrifice in serving God. If I have to offer my own blood with your sacrifice, I will be happy and full of joy with all of you. You also should be happy and full of joy with me” (NCV). Your faith compels you to offer your life as a sacrifice and to serve God by serving others. Sacrifice and serving are two of the keys to lifelong happiness as you generously give your life away for the sake of the Gospel. “It does not matter! I am happy about it—just so Christ is preached in every way possible, whether from wrong or right motives. And I will continue to be happy.”
Philippians 1:18 (GNT) You can be happy in life if you don’t let other people control your attitude. In Philippians 1:15-17, Paul talks about different kinds of people who are affecting his ministry while he is a prisoner in Rome. There are some whom he considers comrades and encourage him in his ministry. Others are criticizing, competing with, or conspiring against his ministry. “Some of them preach Christ because they are jealous and quarrelsome, but others from genuine good will. These do so from love, because they know that God has given me the work of defending the gospel. The others do not proclaim Christ sincerely, but from a spirit of selfish ambition; they think that they will make more trouble for me while I am in prison” (Philippians 1:15-17 GNT). Few things rob your happiness faster than being criticized or feeling like others are working against you. Why? Because we all want to be loved. We all want approval. We all want people to like us. Yet even with the negativity toward his ministry, Paul says in Philippians 1:18, “It does not matter! I am happy about it—just so Christ is preached in every way possible, whether from wrong or right motives. And I will continue to be happy” (GNT). You don’t need other people’s approval to be happy. You’re as happy as you choose to be! If others are unhappy with you, that’s their choice. If you haven’t earned someone’s approval by now, you’re probably not going to get it—and you’re going to be miserable if you try to live for the approval of everybody else. Paul later explains in verses 29 and 30 why you can be happy no matter what: “For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him. We are in this struggle together. You have seen my struggle in the past, and you know that I am still in the midst of it” (NLT). Paul says it is a privilege to suffer when you’re doing the right thing, because that’s when you’re most like Jesus. Don’t let what other people say or do control your happiness. Your joy comes from the Lord! “Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things."
Philippians 4:8 (NKJV) God’s recipe for happiness isn’t a one-shot formula. It’s something you need to follow every day: Worry about nothing, pray about everything, thank God for anything—and, lastly, keep your mind on the right things. If you want to be happy, don’t fill your mind with lies. Don’t fill it with garbage. Instead, fill it with things that inspire you and make you a better person. The Bible says, “I will not put anything wicked in front of my eyes (Psalm 101:3 GW). Does that mean God doesn’t want you to have fun? No, of course not. He says it for your own good, because he knows what will truly make you happy. What do you think about the most in your spare time? The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your thoughts. One practical way to keep your mind on the right things is to not be critical—to avoid putting people down. Instead, think good things about others. If you can’t think good things, just don’t think about them. The Bible says, “Whatever things are of good report . . . meditate on these things” (Philippians 4:8 NKJV). I’d like to build a church where people are always giving a “good report” about each other. You’re at the grocery store and someone asks you, “You know so and so?” And you say, “Yes, they’re a fine person.” That’s giving a good report. God’s formula for happiness is this: Worry about nothing, pray about everything, thank God for anything, and keep your mind on the right things. If you follow it, the Bible promises, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7 NKJV). Who’s the main ingredient of this formula? It’s Jesus Christ. Without him, the happiness formula will just flop. True happiness is the result of having a right relationship with Jesus. “A merciful person helps himself, but a cruel person hurts himself.”
Proverbs 11:17 (GW) God set up the world with universal principles. One of those principles is that the more you help other people, the more you will succeed and the happier you will be. Happiness doesn’t come from living for yourself. Happiness comes from giving your life away and being merciful. Proverbs 11:17 says, “A merciful person helps himself, but a cruel person hurts himself” (GW). That’s another one of those universal principles: You get what you sow in life. The greatest example of this in the Bible is the story of Job, who lost literally everything—his health, family, job, and wealth. His friends came to him in his greatest hour of need. But did they show him mercy? No! They judged, criticized, and second guessed him. They kept telling him what he’d done wrong. “It’s your own fault,” they said. The great turnaround in Job’s life occurred not when he thought about himself but when he mercifully prayed for the people who were criticizing him: “When Job prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his wealth and happiness! In fact, the Lord gave him twice as much as before!” (Job 42:10 TLB). Do you too show mercy to others—even the ones who criticize and judge you? You can go through life as a judgmental person, or you can go through life as a merciful person. If you choose to condemn and judge, then you’re going to make yourself and everyone around you miserable. It’s your choice. You can be an agent of judgment in the world, or you can be an agent of mercy. When you choose mercy, life will be a whole lot more enjoyable for you and for the people around you. Jesus says in the Beatitudes, “Happy are the kind and merciful” (Matthew 5:7 TLB). Do you want to be happy? Then be merciful. “Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it” (1 Timothy 6:6-7 NIV).
God is far more interested in your character than your comfort. He wants you to grow up and become more like Jesus. His focus is on your attitude, not on making your life easy. He’s watching to see if you think having more will make you happier or if you’ve learned to be content with what he has provided for you. The Bible says, “Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it” (1 Timothy 6:6-7 NIV). When you learn to be content, you are believing that God knows what you need better than you do and trusting that he will give you the necessary wisdom to make good financial decisions. Most people get caught into “when” thinking: “When I get this, then I’ll be happy.” When you get a certain job, when you retire, when you get the house paid off, when all the bills are paid—and on and on. But God knows that if you aren’t content already, you’ll always want something else when you get there. Somebody supposedly once asked billionaire Howard Hughes how much it takes to be happy, and he said, “Just a little more.” You can spend your entire life focused on money—trying to make it, earn it, save it, spend it, and use it. So God uses finances as the acid test of how much you trust him. When you have a need, he wants you to ask and learn to be content so that your happiness doesn’t depend on how much or how little you’ve got. Contentment is not something that comes naturally for anyone. It’s something you have to practice every day. You have to remind yourself that God is taking care of you and will provide everything you need. You have to choose to love and appreciate what you already have. If you don’t learn contentment, you’ll always want more. But once you learn to be content, you’ll find joy greater than anything on earth could provide. “There is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it” (1 Timothy 6:6-7 NRSV).
God is more interested in your character than your comfort. He’s not going to give you things if you haven’t learned the principle of contentment first. Contentment is not a lack of ambition. It’s not a lack of goals. Contentment means your happiness doesn’t depend on your circumstances. How do you eliminate discontent? You eliminate the cause: comparing. We compare everything in this country—lawns, cars, husbands and wives, clothes, the education of our kids (we even put “My Kid Was Student of the Month” on car bumpers). Whenever you compare, you’re going to become discontent. You’ve got to learn to stop comparing yourself to others. Paul says in Philippians 4:12, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation” (NIV). Contentment does not come naturally; it is something we have to learn. If we do this, God promises to meet all our financial needs. The Bible says, “There is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it” (1 Timothy 6:6-7 NRSV). One of the greatest secrets in learning to be content is to realize that you don’t really own anything. It’s all on loan to you for a few decades! You didn’t bring a single thing into this world, and you’re not going to carry anything out of it, either. You just get to use it while you’re here on earth. The Bible calls that stewardship. You are the manager or steward of what God allows you to have while you’re here, but it’s not really yours. When you understand that you’re just a manager of the blessings God allows in your life and you hold them with an open hand, you won’t be uptight about losing them. So what if you lose things? God can turn off one faucet and turn on another just as easily. Learn to be content because things don’t last. God is more interested in your character than your comfort. “If you insist on saving your life, you will lose it. Only those who throw away their lives for my sake and for the sake of the Good News will ever know what it means to really live” (Mark 8:35 TLB).
God wired the universe so that happiness does not come from status, salary, sex, or success. Happiness comes from service. God designed you to be happiest when you are giving your life away. Why? Because God wants you to become like him. And it’s all about love! To have a happy heart, practice service and generosity every day. Jesus came to serve and give. Those two actions will bring more happiness into your life than anything else, and they define what it means to follow Jesus. If you’re not serving and if you’re not giving, then you’re not following Jesus. It’s that’s simple. God also wired the universe in such a way that the more you give yourself away, the more God gives to you and the more blessed and happier you are. In Philippians 2:17-18, Paul says, “Your faith makes you offer your lives as a sacrifice in serving God. If I have to offer my own blood with your sacrifice, I will be happy and full of joy with all of you. You also should be happy and full of joy with me” (NCV). Sacrifice and serving are two of the keys to lifelong happiness—generously giving your life away for the sake of the Gospel. “What happiness for those whose guilt has been forgiven! What joys when sins are covered over! What relief for those who have confessed their sins and God has cleared their record” (Psalm 32:1-2 TLB).
Feeling guilty or ashamed can cause us to lose our happiness. You’ve got to get rid of guilt and maintain a clear conscience if you want to be happy, because you cannot feel guilty and be happy at the same time. Philippians 2:15 says, “Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people” (NLT). You might say, “I’d like to be happy, but how do I keep my conscience clear when it’s not clear right now?” Do what Psalm 32:1-2 says: “What happiness for those whose guilt has been forgiven! What joys when sins are covered over! What relief for those who have confessed their sins and God has cleared their record” (TLB). Happiness, joy, and relief are three things everybody’s looking for in life. We all want to be happy. We all want to enjoy life. We all want relief from our pain. The Bible says it all comes from purity, and purity comes from forgiveness through God’s grace. How do you keep a clear conscience? At the beginning and at the end of every day, do a spiritual inventory. Talk to God about anything that is standing between you and him, and then deal with the junk from your day. You practice what’s called spiritual breathing—you breathe out your sins in confession and you breathe in God’s power and cleansing: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9 NIV). |
AuthorTaken from Daily Hope by Rick Warren. Categories
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