True Happiness

Bill Bright

“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind” (Matthew 22:37).

It all started with a lapse of integrity.

Lisa and her husband lived a seemingly wonderful life. They were active in their church and had a young son.

Then Lisa and her husband made an ethically questionable financial decision. As a result, they began relaxing other moral rules. Finally, Lisa discovered that her husband had begun an affair with an old girlfriend. Their fourteen-year marriage crumbled into divorce.

Lisa reacted by turning her back on God. For ten years, she lived a life of absolute rebellion against God. Then one Sunday morning she woke up early and felt a strange urge to go to church. She called a friend who was living an equally wild life, and they attended church together. It was a horrible experience. Lisa felt nervous, conspicuous, and awkward.

But, for some unexplainable reason, Lisa dug out her Bible and kept going to church. God began to do a work inside her. Eventually, Lisa's life and attitudes made a 180-degree turn.

What she discovered was that before her divorce, attempting to follow God's rules, without a heart of love, did not make her happy. But when she wholeheartedly responded to God's love for her, His commandments took on a completely different significance. They were not only easier to obey, but they became a joy to her life.

Lisa did not find happiness in rebellion nor in merely following God's rules. True happiness comes from something much more – a love relationship with our great God and Savior that leads to obedience.

Your View of God Really Matters ...

Are you happy? Or maybe you are just comfortably numb? Maybe you're too distracted to even know. True happiness comes neither from doing your own thing nor from obeying God. It comes from loving God. Today, focus on following Jesus, not just working for Him.


Because God is personal Spirit,
I will seek intimate fellowship with Him. 


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Bright Media Foundation is an affiliate of Cru.

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