Where do you go to find happiness? Wouldn’t it be great to have a blueprint or an instruction manual to get to happiness. Well, there is, God’s Word. All that is needed is to keep it close to be able to reference and refer to when things get a little sideways, or you want to make sure that you are taking things on in the right manner. God’s Word has all we need to start and make it through the day and life in general.
“4But he answered, ‘It is written,
“Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”’” – Matthew 4:4 (ESV)
“7Jesus said to him, ‘Again it is written, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”’” – Matthew 4:7 (ESV)
“10Then Jesus said to him, ‘Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
“You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.”’” – Matthew 4:10 (ESV)
This morning I was reminded that Jesus depended on God’s Word as He worked through this world. In the above verses, Jesus was being tempted by Satan in the wilderness, and yes, Satan was using scripture to distort the truth to get Jesus to give into the temptation. But, Jesus did not fall into that trap. Even as He was weak from a 40 day fast, Jesus went back to the instructions or blueprint to make it through. He consulted God’s Word to find the strength and just what was what. Jesus quoted God’s Word in refute of the lies from Satan. Jesus was able to find happiness in the Word of God as to how to proceed.
But what did Jesus do after fending off Satan, He began His ministry. Jesus was able to get back (or started) to work doing what He loved, teaching and caring and loving and leading and healing and all that came with His ministry. He had consulted the blueprint that got Him through the sticky spot and stuck with the blueprint to move forward into that which brought Him joy.
If you remember, happiness is a momentary emotional thing. Joy is more lasting and internal. With Jesus in our lives and God’s Word to lean on daily, we are able to find joy in all things and circumstance. We will however need happiness from time to time in a moment to get back to the joy. Joy and happiness are found in the instructions for our lives that was laid out by God through His Word. Jesus used it and certainly if it was good enough for Jesus, then it is good enough for me.
Where do you go for encouragement and life giving instructions? Do you look for momentary happiness and then back to the grind? What if you found the instruction on how to get through things and then used those instructions to get you back on track and moving forward into joy, God’s Word, Jesus did can’t we?
Trevor's Thoughts 