That was the email \u201csubject” from Ulta. It jumped out at me. That word, \u201cdeserve\u201d, says it all. We live in a self-gratification, self-centered, self-entitlement, and selfie world. I get it! We all want to be happy. Isn\u2019t that what most think life should be all about?
We are hardwired to pursue happiness, so we pursue it, after all, as Ulta\u2019s advertising campaign says: You deserve it!\u201d We don\u2019t have to look far to hear prominent cultural voices sing and speak about how much they “deserve” their rights, their happiness, and their pleasure. “We\u2019re all about feeling good; We\u2019re all going to die so let\u2019s live it up without regard to morality, being respectful of others or what the consequences of our actions might be. As long as we\u2019re happy \u2013 that\u2019s all that matters.”
The world thinks \u201cI deserve happiness, at all costs!\u201d But, I’ll take this life I live any day — especially when I can fall asleep and sleep well because of a clear conscience. And how happy I am to wake up to freedom from regret of what I did yesterday.
The simple truth is: God does want His kids to be happy, just like you and I want our children to be happy. God made pleasure because He wants us to be happy. He doesn\u2019t want us shivering in a dark corner, frightened, sad and miserable. He sincerely wants happiness in our lives and He wants to flood our days with a joy that the world can\u2019t even begin to know or take away. No matter what you\u2019ve heard, God is a joyful and happy God Himself, and He loves nothing more than to make those of us who are chasing happiness to be happy.
At the heart of Christianity is the key to happiness. It is happiness through holiness. There goes Donna giving us the ‘Jesus Talk’ again. But, I promise you, the way to be happy is found in simple obedience to God and faith in His Son. King David said to God with evident delight AND happiness: “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence, there is the fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.\u201d Psalm 16:11
Since God is happy and we were made in His image, \u201chappy\u201d should be our way of life; not because we \u201cdeserve it\u201d, but because we are God\u2019s kids and it is a part of our DNA. We can\u2019t help ourselves. It\u2019s because of Whose we are. Obedience to our Father is what makes us happy. Pursuing Him is what brings us freedom and joy.
The ability to realize that it\u2019s not that we DESERVE happiness, it\u2019s that our loving and Holy Father God created happiness for us. Our hunger for happiness and pleasure are God-given instincts and when placed in the right order, as the children of our King, we never need to worry because we are on the receiving end of an abundance of His unmerited favor.
Bobby McFerrin had good intentions when he wrote the song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy!” And, here’s MY “Don’t Worry Be Happy” song: “I sing because I’m HAPPY. I sing because I’m free! For His eyes are on the sparrow and I know He watches me!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
That was the email \u201csubject” from Ulta. It jumped out at me. That word, \u201cdeserve\u201d, says it all. We live in a self-gratification, self-centered, self-entitlement, and selfie world. I get it! We all want to be happy. Isn\u2019t that what most think life should be all about? We are hardwired to pursue happiness, so we…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21523,21524,20438],"tags":[5396,1210,21521,1769,11566,21518,1657,11817,3946,40,21522,12033,12713,6573,21519,1666,21520,21517],"class_list":["post-14827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-be-happy","category-deserve-happiness","category-happiness","tag-be-happy","tag-blog","tag-bobby-ferrin","tag-christian","tag-clear-conscience","tag-deserve","tag-dont-worry-be-happy","tag-happy","tag-his-eye-is-on-the-sparrow","tag-inspiration","tag-key-to-happiness","tag-pleasure","tag-righteousness","tag-self-centered","tag-self-entitlement","tag-self-gratification","tag-selfie-world","tag-you-deserve-to-be-happy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14827"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14830,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14827\/revisions\/14830"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}