Read Ephesians 5:15-16

"Look carefully then how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil."


Am I happy? This was the question I asked myself yesterday as I watched my children playing at the playground at McDonalds. I felt good inside knowing that they were enjoying themselves crawling through the maze of interconnected tunnels that eventually ended down the slide. Most of us live to get the most happiness out of life both for ourselves and our family. In fact, our constitution protects our rights to the pursuit of happiness. But the longer I live in this world, the more I realize just how elusive lasting happiness is... it comes and goes and sometimes it is harder to reproduce it, unless you're a child. I think the pursuit of happiness, like that of pursuing money or fame or success can only lead to disappointment because most of us will never achieve it. And if some of us do make it big, the end result is not necessarily happiness. Most the people we read about, who have "made it", are only happy in front of the camera but not inside when they are alone. One only has to simply read the Bible through once and discover God’s truth that you can’t buy happiness or achieve it through fame. But still, we are so foolish we try anyway, to pursue happiness in things. Foolish heh? The bible's emphasis is not with happiness but holiness. And God is more concerned with the state of people's hearts than with the state of their feelings. The reason why the Bible doesn't begin with happiness is because happiness is a by-product of a right relationship with God and something we cannot ultimately find or experience fully in this world and life. Undoubtedly, the message of the gospel is that only by trusting in Jesus and doing the will of God will it brings final happiness, and so the most important matter is not how happy we feel now but how holy we are becoming now. The Christian life is compared in the New Testament as like that of a soldier in a war zone. The solider does not seek to feel happy in the battlefield; he seeks rather to get the fighting over with, to finish and win the war and to get back home to his loved ones. And we must do likewise. We must fight the fight of faith and finish the race if we're going to make it to heaven and see our beloved Jesus. But we’ll never finish the fight unless we see ourselves in a war zone rather than in a playground thinking mainly about having fun and feeling happy.

Posted by Pastor James