The Road to Happiness

I’ve never met a person who didn’t want to be happy.  I’ve met many who aren’t, but none who didn’t want to be.  Oh, they think many things will make them happy and they don’t think they can be happy without them.  That’s too bad, since few of us will have all the things we want.  When Solomon had all he wanted in Ecclesiastes chapter 2, he said that it failed to fulfill him.  So, is there a way to be happy?  Yes!

Psalm 1:1 says, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.”  That little word “blessed” at the start of this verse comes from a Hebrew word meaning “happy”.  Perhaps the idea is even broader, that there is a fullness of life and a deep satisfaction in living it.  We are not talking happy as in “it’s Saturday and I don’t have to go to work.”  That is what we really want.  God tells us how to get it.  It begins with His word, that perfect, inerrant word that He has given for our instruction and happiness.

But there is a second step to happiness.  We don’t just have to read it and walk away.  We have to read it and then do it.  That is what He means by not walking, or standing or sitting, progressively getting more stuck in the rut with the wicked.  He gives us light in His word and He wants us to walk in it.  Happiness then is a choice; we can take it or leave it.  God offers us the opportunity to take it.  He invites us to take it.  He did not create us to be bogged down with sorrow all our life.  He put man in the Garden of Eden.  Man chose to disobey and leave.  God in Christ invites him to come back. 

Come back to peace with God.  Come back to joy in the Lord.  Come back to looking forward to getting up each day and finding true happiness, blessing with Him.  Eliza Hewitt wrote a song to spring our lives into a pattern of happiness.  She invites us to walk in the light of Christ and His word.

    “Trying to walk in the steps of the Savior, trying to follow our Savior and king;
shaping our lives by His blessed example, happy, how happy, the songs that we bring.”

“Pressing more closely to Him who is leading, when we are tempted to turn from the way; trusting the arm that is strong to defend us, happy, how happy, our praises each day.”

“How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior, stepping in the light, stepping in the light, how beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior, led in paths of light.”

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