Question; if
you had one month to live could you truly be happy with your life? Maybe you
lost something along the way. Maybe you completely ruined your lives by the
choices you made. Honestly, I think we get so caught up with what we have done
in our lives that it’s not really as important as we make it out to be. It’s
not about boasting about all the accomplishments you have done or your wall of
degrees. We feel that we need to be this machine in order to be this sinless
person. We live believing that by the works I have done, that is what’s going
to get me into heaven. I notice a lot of people in my city that go to help feed
the homeless, but they come in and they feed, and then go home. What is wrong
with this picture? Jesus sat with the homeless; eat with them, fellowshipped
with the homeless. We can’t truly understand or relate with what people have
been through unless we get down to their level. I feel like if this is the way
people are severing God than it is all wrong. If you are walking to the
building where you’re going to feed, and your first thought is that you can’t
wait to get home to your nice bed, than you are clearly going to serve for the
wrong reasons. Joshua 24:15 “And if it is evil in your
eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods
your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites
in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” How can we be truly happy if our priorities are all wrong? As
Christians are job in this life is to fight for and to glorify the kingdom of
heaven, it is to serve God. There are times in our lives were we feel that we
are trapped and hopeless. It’s that feeling you get where nothing you do is
ever right. Trust me I know all too well about this feeling. But we should
never get to the point where we get so caught up in ourselves that we don’t
care anymore. I am mentioning all of these things because if we are doing these
things wrong than being truly happy will be impossible. Let’s say you were in a
relationship and you did something throughout the year that the other person
didn’t really know about, and now that you both are broken up you still haven’t
said anything. I believe it in my heart that it is your responsibility to still
tell them. Most of us would bottle it up and never say a word. This makes this
guilt inside of us grow stronger. How will we ever be truly happy if we are
always hiding things from the people we love? Something that has happened to me
a couple of times is when in a relationship the other person would feel the
need to hide things from me for months, why? They didn’t want to hurt me. But
in all honesty they were hurting themselves by lying every single day. They are
building this guilt inside themselves and its making it feel so much worse.
James 1:14 “But each
person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.” So how do we get true happiness? From
what I believe it’s nothing we can do ourselves. We can’t do something good, or
help someone that needs help and get it. I mean there is a point in our lives
that we are happy, but there will always be struggle and pain. It’s why we are
here. We are here to learn and grow. Now we can be happy, but I don’t think we
will be truly happy until we get to heaven. But the point of this post is to
say if we aren’t taking responsibility for our actions, and we aren’t living
our lives for serving God then how can we feel happy with our lives when the
time of judgment comes. When I met my best friend of my life I believed that I
was happy. I mean I was happy, but truly happy? I think my relationship with
God had fallen apart, so my happiness wavered. The funny thing is that
sometimes we meet someone and you date, and you think you are happy, but the
Holy Spirit is trying to wake you up. I made the mistake of looking the other
way when the Holy Spirit was working in me because I believed that I had true
happiness. I am glad that this girl and I can still be friends. We may not be
best friends anymore, but we are here for each other. I want to clear something
up. I am not saying don’t be happy, and I am not saying to put yourself down
because you do something wrong. I am just saying we do have the ability to do
things for the right reasons and glorifying God while we do it. Philippians
2:12-13 “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as
in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work
for his good pleasure.”
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. (Matthew 24:6-8; Mark 13:7-8 NIV).Mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God -- having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. (2 Timothy 3:1-5 NIV). But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. (2 Peter 3:10 NIV). An...
Comments
Last year I was able to serve with a small group of very loving people who have been doing a homeless feeding programme. It was a great honour for me that I really hope to be able to do again very soon. Even though the persons doing the serving did not eat with the homeless (because the food was prepared specifically for the homeless not the volunteers), there was a lot of fellowshipping going on. They prayed, they talked, they laughed and the volunteers knew almost everybody's names and a little something about their personal lives. I myself managed to make a few friends in a very short period of time. So it's not all surly and mechanical everywhere.