Happiness Comes Only From God
“I just want to be happy!” I just heard a woman cry to her friend on a “reality” TV show.
“And you deserve to be happy!” the friend replied through her own, supportive, tears.
Thanks be to God, I have learned just how wrong the friend’s words are (common as they may be).
“You deserve to be happy,” is the phrase the bartender uses to sell the alcoholic another drink. It’s what a salesman says to sell cars (or even houses) his customers can’t afford. It’s what candy makers say in their advertisements that diabetics will certainly see. It’s what divorce attorneys say to their clients who claim they have “just fallen out of love.”
In other words, it’s the devil’s phrase!
The truth is, all of us are atrocious, self-centered, beings who, given the opportunity, would deny, and probably even kill, Jesus still today. (Before you declare me wrong about that, please remember that even Peter was sure he wouldn’t deny his beloved teacher three times before sunrise.)
So none of us, actually, deserve anything.
But glory be to God! He gives us everything!
When I finally realized that, I became “happier” than ever. (I guess that’s what people call a “born again” moment, though it happened to me over several years.)
The correct, Godly, response to a friend yearning for “happiness” is this: Happiness is in God. Connect with Him, and you will have it! Your circumstances are irrelevant.
It’s simple really. It doesn’t, actually, take years to accomplish. After shedding his or her stubbornness, one can start living “happily ever after” in less than a minute. Thanks be to God!