PSALM 73:25 – Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.”
THEME OF THE DAY: THE HAPPY CHRISTIAN. We are wired for happiness. That was all God’s doing. When we were created, happiness was to be our condition and experience forever. He wanted, and still wants, us to know true happiness which would include lasting satisfaction, consistent contentment, and purpose in life. And despite sin entering into the world, He has provided the way for us to know true happiness, but first, let’s look at the negative.
Allow me to re-emphasize this point of our creation. God did wire us for happiness, and Adam and Eve knew this before the fall in the Garden and entrance of sin into the human experience. When they ate the fruit, the wiring for happiness did not go away. It was short-circuited and re-directed. They, and every other human being born, began to look for happiness in all the wrong places, and misery resulted.
Sin does offer happiness, but it cannot deliver. King Solomon with brutal honesty from brutal experience describes the length he went to find happiness, contentment, and purpose in life apart from God. And it was a long journey. Ponder his list and let’s make sure we are not following his pattern of looking in the world for what is only in Christ. By the way, make sure we get the result he pens in the last verse of his foolish attempt . . .
I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man. So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. (ECCLESIASTES 2:1-11)
When it comes to our walks with Christ and maturity, blessed (or happy) are Christians who know that no material object, no human relationship, no personal achievement, no location, no vocation, or anything else in this world brings settled joy, lasting contentment, and fulfilling purpose in life. They have learned the human mind, soul, and heart are only satisfied in Christ alone. Let’s strive to be one of those mature Christians.
PRAYER: “Father, teach me, show me, that my heart will only be content and at rest in beholding Your Son’s glory.”
QUOTE: “To be in the Presence of the Lord Jesus is the only experience that satisfies the human soul.”
In the affection of Christ Jesus,
Pastor Jim