Bubbling With Happiness
Happiness: So
universally sought, but seemingly elusive. Since Adam and
Eve rebelled against God and were cast from the Garden
of Eden, mankind has sought the happiness only God can
give. But many people exist on a meager portion of happiness.
If you are one of those folks, I have wonderful news: you
can have and enjoy the happiness that comes to everyone
who sincerely seeks it.
Consider the unsightly weeds. They spring up everywhere
and need no encouragement. But flowers must be planted, fertilized, watered and
given regular care. Unhappiness springs up easily and needs no special assistance,
but acquiring happiness requires patient effort.
I have been blessed to know people who bubbled
with happiness. What a witness they were to me! They inspired me to want to learn
their secret for joy, since for many years I thought I could never get over my
natural tendency to feel sorry for myself at every opportunity - a self-pity
that made me quick to snap at anyone who disrupted the peace and tranquility
that I craved.
Our human nature wants everything to be exactly
as we desire before we can be happy. This is why we need the help of the Holy
Spirit to have His joy. Many of us find it difficult to believe that God can increase
our happiness, but as you read this book you will discover how He does just that!
Get ready for an exciting trip! Your life will never be the same again.
A
Joy to Learn
With
God's gentle but persistent prodding, I began to realize
that I grumbled about something at least a hundred times
a day. When the spirit of grumbling ensnares us, we don't
realize that it has become so much a part of our lives.
I certainly didn't!
I started off each day grumbling the moment I was
jarred awake by the loud clanging of my alarm clock. I grumbled even before my
eyes opened: "I wish I didn't have to get up so early, I muttered. Why do I have
to get up so early all the time? It's not even five a.m.!"
Then, stumbling to the
bathroom, I grumbled at the growing number of aches
and pains. At the mirror I saw how terrible I looked,
then chided myself for wasting time on such foolishness.
I needed to hurry or I would be late. The weather,
too, caused me to grumble. It was always too cold
or too hot.
Everything was too this or too that. I
didn't verbalize all my complaints, of course, but grumbled away in my thoughts
and in my heart. I was firmly and painfully ensnared in Satan's "grumbling trap."
And I was displeasing God.
God persistently guided me to scriptures such as, Rejoice in the Lord always (PH. 4:4), but I was slow to heed and learn.
I certainly was not a living example of an always rejoicing Christian.
It was easy to excuse myself though - everyone I knew grumbled. Most did so aloud.
Fortunately, God didn't
permit me to get away with such excuses. More and
more I saw that I did not measure up to God's standard
for His people. But how to change?
Step-by-step He persuaded me to try, and I could
not resist His loving insistence.
Perhaps this book is
God's loving insistence to you. Maybe you,
too, have become an accomplished grumbler without
even realizing it. Start listening to your thoughts.
How frequently do you express the attitude, "I
am not happy, so I am not rejoicing."
Seeing ourselves as grumblers is painful. But out
of the pain comes hope. As we learn how to receive new instruction from God,
we realize that He is helping us become the happy person that He wants us to
be.
Soon we see a smile on our face when we look in
the mirror. We can actually feel a desire to tell God how happy we are over the
new joy He is helping us to find.
Praise to God that comes from the heart puts a
light in our eyes, a spring in our steps - and a blessed knowledge that God is
actually working in us.
What joy! What gladness to know that God is using
each moment, whether pleasant or painful, to prepare us for our eternal dwelling
place - Heaven. There will be no grumbling there! We must get ready. We can!
And it is a joy to learn how.
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