Happiness & Humility
Dear Champions,
The short excerpt is by Whit Criswell , and the Scripture is Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Psychology Today magazine did a survey and asked 52,000 people, "What would it take to make you happy?" In order of most votes were: friends and social life, good job, love, recognition, sex, good financial situation, owning a house, being attractive, health, religion, recreation, being a parent, marriage, and for their spouse to be happy. The interesting thing is happiness is mostly sought through external situations rather than internal ones. Then does happiness mean having the right circumstances?
The wisest and wealthiest man ever was Solomon, and he said he was going to deny himself nothing in order to find happiness. He found three dead-ends: accumulating things, experiencing all kinds of pleasure, and achieving success. He concluded, "All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind" (Ecclesiastes 2:17). The world's view of happiness is having the right circumstances, but God's idea of happiness is having the right attitude.
In Matthew 5, Jesus sat on a mountainside and, contrary to popular opinion, began teaching what is commonly referred to as the BE-attitudes. And He repeatedly said, "Blessed," which means, "Happy are you." He reminded them that happiness is not determined by what's happening around or outside of me, but rather what's happening INSIDE of me! It's an internal attitude.
Jesus tells us that the first step to happiness is HUMILITY. He's got to be kidding, right? "Blessed are the Poor in Spirit." What does that mean? It means when compared to a holy and righteous God, we are filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). It means that I don't have it all together, I am not the sum total of the universe, I am not God!" Humble and happy go together.
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