Fresh Start Devotionals

Happiness Pop quiz. What kind of happiness do you want? The kind with a quick flash, a loud explosion and a lifetime of regret? The kind that Revelation 18:14 talks about when it says, “Everything you’ve lived for, gone! All delicate and delectable luxury, lost! Not a scrap, not a thread to be found!” (MSG) Sometimes I feel like I spend most of my time talking to people on both sides of that question. I wish I could get both sides in the same room at the same time because I know it would change the outcome of some of their lives. If those ready to ignite their passions could hear the sobs from the broken people whose lives were frittered away in a moment of indiscretion that lapped over into a lifetime of regret, maybe they’d choose a better way. Maybe they’d choose something with some permanence. That’s the great thing about the happiness that Jesus gives, it is forever. John 4:14 says, But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. (KJV) And Revelations 7:16 says, “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.” (KJV) Happiness begins by admitting that when it comes to spiritual things, we are totally bankrupt before God, which leads to mourning and submission to God’s control. When a person is under God’s control they hunger and thirst for His righteousness, and the promise of the scripture is that they are filled. There are no shortcuts here, no express elevators to happiness that can bypass these steps. Happiness, the kind that lasts, comes from taking one step at a time. Jim L. Wilson, Fresh Start Devotionals (Fresno, CA: Willow City Press, 2009).