.

People today equate material things to happiness, hence the rush to become rich and acquire material things that money can buy, only to find that hapiness eludes them.


A young man may say "I'ld be the happiest man if I can just get the latest BMW car." He gets it and while driving, someone runs into it. He has to spend money repairing it, this deosnt make him happy. Or a new model comes out and he's no longer happy the old model.


A young house wife with some young children may say "if I just had my own house I'ld be happy forever". She gets it, her neighbours are terrible. They throw their garbage over the fence into her yard. She's having problems with her kids and all of a sudden that house that she thought she was going to love so much doesn't look so hot.


Happiness from material things is a very short lived, temporary form of happiness. Its not enduring. And material things in themselves just can't keep making us happy - that's one of the illusions about being rich, thinking "riches are really going make me happy", yet there are a lot of rich people that are very sad. Happiness has to be something more than just material possessions.

I remember an illustration about how we truly can be happy, and its so apt. Its about a butterfly representing happiness.




A man wants to be happy and so he's chasing that butterfly with a net. The butterfly is flying away and he runs after the butterfly and brings the net down, but he misses it everytime and all day long he's chasing that butterfly but he keeps missing it and the butterfly just gets away, and he's frustrated.

Another man doesn't chase the butterfly. He has a little piece of ground next to his house and he digs it up, takes the stones out, cultivates it, makes it real pretty, plants a nice garden with some pretty flowers around it, works hard all day long doing that, perspiring in the hot sun and he sits down on a rock at the end of the day and he looks at that garden that he worked hard on and the butterfly comes down and lands on his shoulder.

The point is - Happiness is not a direct object, you don't just pursue happiness. Happiness is a by-product, it comes with work. It comes with service to God. Little wonder the Bible gives us the formula to being truly happy - Matthew 5:3

BIBLESPEAKS:
People today equate material things to happiness, hence the rush to become rich and acquire material things that money can buy, only to find that hapiness eludes them.


A young man may say "I'ld be the happiest man if I can just get the latest BMW car." He gets it and while driving, someone runs into it. He has to spend money repairing it, this deosnt make him happy. Or a new model comes out and he's no longer happy the old model.


A young house wife with some young children may say "if I just had my own house I'ld be happy forever". She gets it, her neighbours are terrible. They throw their garbage over the fence into her yard. She's having problems with her kids and all of a sudden that house that she thought she was going to love so much doesn't look so hot.


Happiness from material things is a very short lived, temporary form of happiness. Its not enduring. And material things in themselves just can't keep making us happy - that's one of the illusions about being rich, thinking "riches are really going make me happy", yet there are a lot of rich people that are very sad. Happiness has to be something more than just material possessions.

I remember an illustration about how we truly can be happy, and its so apt. Its about a butterfly representing happiness.




A man wants to be happy and so he's chasing that butterfly with a net. The butterfly is flying away and he runs after the butterfly and brings the net down, but he misses it everytime and all day long he's chasing that butterfly but he keeps missing it and the butterfly just gets away, and he's frustrated.

Another man doesn't chase the butterfly. He has a little piece of ground next to his house and he digs it up, takes the stones out, cultivates it, makes it real pretty, plants a nice garden with some pretty flowers around it, works hard all day long doing that, perspiring in the hot sun and he sits down on a rock at the end of the day and he looks at that garden that he worked hard on and the butterfly comes down and lands on his shoulder.

The point is - Happiness is not a direct object, you don't just pursue happiness. Happiness is a by-product, it comes with work. It comes with service to God. Little wonder the Bible gives us the formula to being truly happy - Matthew 5:3

@bold,
Psa 34:14 Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.



peace:

H7965

שָׁלֹם שָׁלוֹם
shâlôm shâlôm
shaw-lome', shaw-lome'
From H7999; safe, that is, (figuratively) well, happy, friendly; also (abstractly) welfare, that is, health, prosperity, peace: - X do, familiar, X fare, favour, + friend, X greet, (good) health, (X perfect, such as be at) peace (-able, -ably), prosper (-ity, -ous), rest, safe (-ly), salute, welfare, (X all is, be) well, X wholly.
Total KJV occurrences: 236


@ underline,
Mat 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Being poor in spirit, without the gifts of the spirit,
is hardly a formula for being happy, seeing as the gifts of the spirit include peace and joy - happiness.


The poor physically have little material possessions
the poor in spirit have little in the way of gifts of the Spirit.
They will be filled though, when they eventually attain the Kingdom of Heaven, then they will be happy of course.

.