What is the Key to Happiness? What is the one thing we all need to be content and at peace? Is there such a thing? Yes and No. In this podcast, I will cover 5 major areas that can contribute to helping us get closer and closer to this elusive happiness.
In this podcast, I cover the need a for a strong theological grounding for the question of happiness, and where it is truly found. Mystie Winckler wrote the following summary of Piper’s wonderful grand breaking book “Desiring God”
- The longing to be happy is a universal human experience, and it is good, not sinful.
- We should never try to deny or resist our longing to be happy. [Our desires are not too strong, but too weak!]
- We should seek to intensify, not resist, our longing to be happy by nourishing it with that which provides the deepest and most enduring satisfaction.
- The deepest and most enduring happiness is found only in God. Not from God, but in God.
- Happiness in God reaches its consummation when it is shared with others.
- If we abandon the pursuit of our own pleasures, we fail to honor God and love people; the pursuit of pleasure is a necessary part of all worship and virtue.
Theologian J.I. Packer wrote; “…should we start to seek pleasure rather than God, we would be in danger of losing both.” He then concludes by quoting an unnamed rabbi; “God will hold us accountable for any neglect we have shown of the pleasures he provided.”[1]
In closing, Dr John Piper reiterates the theme of this work, he calls “Christian Hedonism”;
The pleasure the Christian seeks is the pleasure that is in God himself. He is the end of our search, not the means to some further end. Our exceeding joy is he, the Lord-not the streets of gold, or the reunion with relatives or any blessing of heaven. Christian Hedonism does not reduce God to a key that unlocks a treasure chest of gold and silver. Rather it seeks to transform the heart so that ‘the Almighty will be your gold and choice silver for you. (Job 22:25)’[2]
I also go over the 5 steps to happiness from TJ Jakes. This amazing Dallas preacher shared 5 simple I cover in detail.
Thet are listed here:
1. Own Your Own Happiness
“Your kids are not gonna make you happy. Your spouse is not gonna make you happy. Your big
house is not gonna make you happy. Own your own happiness and be responsible for doing those
things that bring joy into your own heart.”
2. Challenge Your Own Story
“People torment themselves by how they see their life. They’ve told themselves a story as if it were
‘the’ truth, when it is really a perspective truth. And sometimes you’ve narrated a story that you
beat yourself to death with. Challenge your own story. Change the way you talk to yourself about
who you are and what happened to you, and what you’re gonna do in your life.”
3. Enjoy the Journey, Not the Destination
“A lot of us delay our happiness [and say] ‘When I get to this level, when I get the degree, when I
get the kids, when I get married, I’m gonna be happy.’ Enjoy the journey. Enjoy the whole step, the
whole process.”
4. Make Relationships Count
“Nature teaches us, there is no fruit without relationships. You cannot be fruitful by yourself, in
business, in home, in life, in church. I don’t care what it is, you are no more than the relationships
you surround yourself with and make sure that those are good ones.”
5. Balance Work With Play
“You can’t do all of either one and be successful and to those whom much is given, much is required.
If you work really hard and you’re a really diligent person, make sure that you do some play to
balance your life out. If you play real hard, but you don’t work very much, you’re gonna be fun, but
you’re gonna be hungry.”
Click here for the full article.
There is no “key” to happiness or to God, who is the source of light, love, holiness, and true happiness, other than Jesus himself.
For Jesus, himself is the Key. But he is not a key we use, rather he is the key that uses us–that opens not only heaven, but open us too.
Happiness is not something we get, it is what happens to us when we pursue the sources of it.
In the Q&A hour, we address the question “Why are scientists more likely to be skeptical or atheists? : Is it because they have good evidence against God?”
Have a question? Email me at khaldoun@gmail.com
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[1] Packer, J.I. “Pleasure Principles,” Christianity Today, November 22, 1993. 26
[2] Piper, John Desiring God: Meditations Mediations of a Christian Hedonist. (Oregon: Multnomah Books, 1996), p. 20.
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