5 Ways Wisdom Will Make You Happy

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Everyone wants to be happy. Don’t they?

I do. I’m guessing you do too.

We may not all agree on how to get there, but the desire for happiness is natural and universal.

And it’s that natural desire for happiness that made possible the birth of a lie.

God wants you to be happy. 

It’s not that God doesn’t want you to be happy or that He doesn’t care. He loves you. The issue is priorities and what we tell ourselves we need to be happy. It’s the danger of excusing foolish choices by giving them a happiness label. So…

I’ve thought about this a lot the last few weeks as I’ve searched the topic of wisdom because 1. “God wants you to be happy” keeps popping up on social media and Christian websites and 2. I wondered how happiness fit with Godly wisdom.

I wondered . . . how do wisdom and happiness go together?

I know God wants me to be wise, so I asked the question—will living with wisdom make me happier?

My conclusion – YES!

5 Ways Wisdom Will Make You Happy

1. Be faithful – trust God and obey His commands.

He guards the paths of the just and protects those who are faithful to Him. Proverbs 2:8

Good news – God gives us His Spirit and all we need to remain faithful.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. 1 Timothy 1:7

2. Be a disciple – know you don’t know everything but you do know the One who does.

When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is joyful. Proverbs 29:18

Good news – God gave us Jesus to teach us and wants us to follow Him.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:28–29

3. Be a seeker of God’s truth – never stop digging deep for God’s truth and asking for His guidance.

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. Matthew 7:7

Good news – God promised to reveal His truth to everyone who asks, seeks, and knocks.

For I hold you by your right hand—I, the Lord your God. And I say to you, ‘Don’t be afraid. I am here to help you. Isaiah 41:13

4. Be loving – it’s impossible to be happy while completely focused on yourself.

 But we don’t need to write to you about the importance of loving each other,^[a] for God himself has taught you to love one another. 1 Thessalonians 4:9

Good news – God pours His love into us and helps us love each other.

We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in His love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. 1 John 4:16-17

5. Be His – just be. Be still. Be present. Be Abba’s child loved and cherished.

 Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure. Ephesians 1:4–5

Good news – God loves you and me because He wants to love us. He chooses to love us. Not because of who we are but because of who He is.

God is love. He didn’t need us. But he wanted us. And that is the most amazing thing.  ~Rick Warren

God doesn’t want you to be happy. He wants you to be faithful and wise, loving and obedient. He wants you to trust and obey, to seek truth and to be still in His presence.

Why?

Because He knows those things will make you happy and without them, well . . . it’s harder. No. Scratch that. It’s almost impossible.

I think followers of Jesus should be the happiest people on the planet and I’ve used this space to repeat it often. But…

I don’t believe our happiness is something God wants if it comes through foolishness. The wise attitude about happiness rejects the temptation that whatever makes us happy is good with God.

Things like:

I know I shouldn’t do that, but it makes me happy.
I know I shouldn’t go along with the crowd, but they’re my friends and they make me happy. 
I know I should or I shouldn’t, but __________. (You fill in the blank.)

Talk about foolish simple recipes for disaster. Learn the hard way a few times and you and I will start to realize that following God’s wisdom is a better way to enjoy happiness.

So let’s make it a goal to know and follow Godly wisdom and enjoy a better kind of joy-filled happiness.

Wisdom is a tree of life to those who embrace her; happy are those who hold her tightly. Proverbs 3:18

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