"Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart." -Psalm 37:4
Whether Christian or atheist, mathematician or author, gymnast or couch potato, we all have one common goal: we all seek happiness. Some of us find it, others don't. However, most people don't find it. They're looking in all the wrong places. They look at knowledge, or power, or money, or friends, but the truth is, it's in none of those things. There is only one thing that can help us find happiness, and that is the word of God.
Happiness is not something you get. It's not something that you achieve, it's not something you can be given, you have to go out and get it. You have to learn to be content in all things like Paul, and you have to know how to ignore all those horrible things that are happening and focus on your relationship with God. Happiness is not something that you can give to yourself, you obtain happiness when you have a full understanding and appreciation of God and what He has done. Happiness comes when you stop thinking about yourself and you stop thinking about what you don't have and what you could have, but it comes when you become content with what you have.
I'm not condemning the mall, I love the mall. It's fantastic and I absolutely love it. However when we live in a place where there is a mall 5 miles away from pretty much everyone's house, and when electronics are constantly updating, and the list of "necessities" is getting longer and longer by the day, it can be hard to stay content. It can be hard to say that you don't need something when you can get up, drive to a store, and buy it. However that is not where happiness is.
When we indulge in ourselves, we forget about happiness and we forget what it's like to live the simple life and we end up waiting for the next thing to come out, or for graduation, or for a job, but really, that's not happiness. Happiness is when you realize that you don't need those things to get to heaven. Happiness is enjoying the things you have while you have them. Happiness is not being attached to the things of this world but to things of God. You can't wait for happiness, and you cannot lose happiness without your own consent. In the verse written at the top, it does not mean that if you follow God, He will grant your every wish, it's saying that once you love God with all your heart and He is all you want, you will become content and Happy because God is good, and perfect, and He, and only He, can give you true joy.
Today I would like to encourage you all to look past all the things that you want, and the things that you think will make your life feel better, and see what's in front of you. See what God has given you and see what you can do for the kingdom. God doesn't want to see us sad, but that's not His choice, it's yours.
