HAPPINESS

“I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.”

-John 10:10

Many years ago, while passing through an industrial town outside Birmingham, I saw the gray laundry hanging on the lines, and building facades blackened by soot and coal smoke. “Isn’t this atmosphere terribly depressing to the people who live here?” I asked my host. “It would drive me crazy!” With a knowing smile he replied, “No, the people who live here are the happiest people in all England because they have learned to rise above their circumstances.”

In the book of Romans Chapter 8 where Paul says we can be more than conquerors, he lists some of the circumstances he faced: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril and the sword – not the sort of things connected with happiness.

A conqueror is one who knows what it is to go through the heat of the battle – to suffer and do without if he has to, so that he can win in the end. Because Paul had Jesus Christ in his life, he had the supreme resource he needed to be a conqueror.

If you have been trying to find happiness through your own efforts, may I recommend Christ to you? Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). Begin getting acquainted with Him by reading the New Testament. Then bow your head and heart, and trust Him as Lord and Savior. Life in its fullest will begin for you.