Don’t Worry, Be Happy
Happy are those who fear the Lord (Psalm 121:1, NLT).
Dear friends:
No one can have true happiness and peace unless they know their sins are forgiven and that they have assurance of eternal life with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
But even some Christians are not as happy as they can be. Below are ten rules for happiness which may be of help to you:
1. Give something away to someone (with no strings attached).
2. Do a kindness to someone (and forget it).
3. Spend a few minutes with the aged (their experience is a priceless guidance).
4. Look intently into the face of a baby (and marvel).
5. Laugh often (it is life’s lubricant).
6. Give thanks to the Lord (a thousand times a day is not enough).
7. Pray (or you will lose the way).
8. Work (with vim and vigor).
9. Plan as though you’ll live forever (because you will).
10. Live as though you’ll die tomorrow (because your body will on some tomorrow).
Psalms 146:5 says, “Happy is the man who has the God of Jacob as his helper, whose hope is in the Lord his God — the God who made both earth and heaven, the seas and everything in them” (TLB). Many times people are not happy because they forget who God is, how powerful He is, how much He loves us, and how capable He is to take care of us.
In Proverbs 16:20, God says, “God blesses those who obey him; happy the man who puts his trust in the Lord.”
There are two keys to successful Christian living: trust and obedience. The old hymn says it so clearly: “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” So true.
Our Lord Jesus describes five different activities or types of people who are “happy” in Matthew 5:5-10 (TLB).
The popular secular song exhorts, “Don’t worry, be happy.” That should be true every day for the trusting and obedient Christian!
Yours for helping to fulfill the Great Commission each year until our Lord returns,
Bill Bright
About the Author
The late Dr. Bill Bright was Founder and President/Chairman Emeritus of Campus Crusade for Christ, an organization which began as a campus ministry in 1951 and now has more than 27,000 full-time staff and up to 500,000 trained volunteer staff in 196 countries in areas representing 99.6 percent of the world’s population. In the past 50 years, Campus Crusade for Christ has seen approximately 6 billion exposures to the gospel worldwide. The film, “JESUS,” which Bright conceived and funded through Campus Crusade for Christ, is the most widely translated and viewed film of any type ever produced. Since its use began in 1980, the film has been translated into 839 languages and viewed or listened to by over 5.7 billion people in 228 countries. Dr. Bright was also the author of more than fifty books. Dr. Bright recently co-founded Global Pastors Network to “Touch, Teach and Train” a group of 5 million new house churches around the world 24/7/365 at http://www.globalpastorsnetwork.org.
Copyright (c) 2003, Bill Bright. All rights reserved. Used with permission
