Thursday, January 10, 2013

Thursday’s Devotion: Happiness is Possible


Ecclesiastes 3:12-14 (NRSV)  I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil.  I know that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe before him.

This scripture comes right after the well known verses from Ecclesiastes that say that there is a season for everything.  It says to me that God desires our happiness; that the order of things is designed for us to live, work and be happy.  Of course there’s a catch. This happiness comes to those who are participating in God’s order instead of creating their own disorder.  God may ask difficult things of us, the preceding verses say that, too.  Yet I have experienced in my life that the close I stay to what I feel is God’s perfect and wise design for my life, the better off I am.  When things start going wrong in my life, I stop and ask if perhaps God wants me to go down a different path.  Sometimes God takes away something we value so that God can give us something even better.

Holy God,  Thanks for the blessings of this day.  Guide us to the pathways that lead us to living the happy lives you have planned for us.  We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Have a blessed day,
Paige

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