Live Holy, Be Happy

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God 

Surveys by three organizations, the Gallup Poll, the National Opinion Research Center, and the Pew Organization, show that religious, spiritually committed people are more likely to be happy than the non-religious. My conclusion is: Happy people are godly people. The Bible says the same thing, "Happy are the people whose God is the Lord" [Psalm 144:15].

This is by no means an appeal to seek happiness, but rather an appeal to seek HIM. Happiness is the bi-product of knowing God. "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you" [Matthew 6:33].

C.S. Lewis said, "God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about faith. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”

We could say this another way and get the same result; Live holy, be happy. God is holy, and as we seek Him and live in His ways, we find true happiness. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” [Matthew 5:8]. The Greek word translated “blessed” is makarios. It also means, happy and spiritually favored. 

“Happy are the pure in heart” — the holy ones. It’s not those who live in sinless perfection, that’s impossible. It’s those who seek God, who seek to live in His ways, who seek holiness. Henry Ward Beecher said, "The strength and the happiness of a man consists in finding out the way in which God is going, and going in that way too.”

Got happiness? Live holy — wholly committed to God.

How happy are those whose way is blameless, who live according to the Lord’s instruction! Happy are those who keep His decrees and seek Him with all their heart. Psalm 119:1-2 [Holman Christian Standard Bible]