Sometimes what is supposed to be wonderful and beautiful and peaceful ends up just messy and broken and we hear the songs…JOY TO THE WORLD and SILENT NIGHT…and it’s anything but JOY and it’s everything but PEACE.
So if it’s ok with you…can we just do something together? Can you just invite God to speak to you today? Ask God to cut through the clutter. Ask God to cut through the skepticism. Ask God to cut through the pain and hurts and simply and quietly ask God to SPEAK TO YOU. Just right now, bow your head for a moment and say, GOD, SPEAK TO ME.
All over this room, and at our video campus today and for those listening on line, God I pray that you would do something deep and personal in our lives today. Be among us. SPEAK OH GOD…show more content… And I’m gonna tell you why. You may want to jot this down. Write this down. Here’s where we go wrong with running so HARD after all those things that our culture says PRODUCES ultimate happiness. Here’s the problem. HAPPINESS IS A SYMPTOM OF YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES.
Dr. Henry Cloud, He’s a Christian Psychologist and Philosopher, in his book, “THE LAW OF HAPPYNESS” writes about this idea that HAPPINESS IS A SYMPTOM of your CIRCUMSTANCES.
And you see the problem with relying on the list for happiness don’t you? YOU CAN LOSE YOUR FLIP FLOP and that will not make you happy. Your health can change. Your finances can change. And you will not be happy. YOUR CAT COULD RUN AWAY… that would make me happy if I had a cat but for some of you that would make you very unhappy.
Listen…your family could change. BAD STUFF will come. Circumstances WILL change and the problem with SO MUCH OF OUR HAPPINESS riding on our HAPPY LIST is that the LIST IS TEMPORARY. The LIST comes and goes.
The LIST moves and what was ENOUGH to make you happy today doesn’t make you happy tomorrow. The stuff that satisfies today doesn’t necessarily satisfy…show more content… Maybe that’s why we have to change what we are chasing. Paul, in the Holy Scripture wrote something to us that might give us a different perspective on happiness. Paul, writing from a ROMAN PRISON CELL in the city of PHILIPPI said, I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to be in plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. (and friends, here is his secret…here is THE SECRET.) I can do all this through him (Christ) who gives me strength. Philippians