This will make you happy …

The American Declaration of Independence states we are all endowed by our Creator with certain “unalienable rights,” one of which is the pursuit of happiness.

It’s this pursuit that we weave into just about everything we do any moment of the day. Our happiness is often the single greatest pursuit of our lives. If, at any moment, we sense we are not happy, we usually immediately begin efforts to change things so that we are, once again, happy.

There’s a little “secret” to achieving and maintaining happiness.

Are you ready for it?

You’re sure?

Okay, here goes: release all outcomes to the will of God.

When you learn to be happy with what God wills, you will have lasting happiness.

Even Jesus practiced this concept. With events quickly spiraling toward the cross, Jesus would have personally been happier with a different route, but He released the outcome to the will of God and found happiness in yielding to what the Father wanted.

“Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine,” Luke 22:42.

James helps us see our habit of thinking and speaking in declarative terms, putting a “period” at the end of our desires and designs. Doing so sets us up for disappointments and … yep, you guessed it … unhappiness. That’s because we lock in on certain outcomes in order to be happy. When things turn out differently, we’re unhappy. But if we commit our ways to the Lord, leaving the outcomes to His will, we can be happy in what He wants for us.

“Look here, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.’ How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog — it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, ‘If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that,'” James 4:13-15.

Are you happy with God leading you through life? Or do you still try to determine your own outcomes for happiness?

“Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you,” Psalm 37:5.

Scotty