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How to find happiness in this crazy world can seem impossible at times. I know in my life I tried many things that made me feel more empty than when I first started looking. Many avenues seemed like the right way to happiness only for me to end up feeling more empty than alive. I tried relationships, going to bars and parties, different kinds of drugs, concerts, traveling to different places, going to church, and everything made me feel more and more empty than when I first began looking. The relationships I tried seemed like the right way but after the thrill was gone that empty feeling started to edge its way back into my life. It was the same way for everything else I tried. Parties, drugs, concerts, drinking, all had the same end result, emptiness! That began the “church age” in my life. My two young children and I went to church every Sunday for twelve years. We meet some friendly people and we meet some high and mighty people. We had some enlightening times and we had some boring times and still not the way to happiness. So what is it that makes us happy and fulfilled as human beings? After much thought and contemplation, I thought back to my drinking days and remembered that when I took a taxi to the bar I could relax and not have in the back of my mind the worrying of how I was going to get home safely. OK that seems logical but how does that relate to our subject? I found that I could apply this same principle to the bigger picture. Here’s what I mean, In life what is the problem hanging over our heads that is making us not relax and have a good time? I don’t know about everybody else but for me, death was the problem of making my life miserable. It was the same problem I had faced in the bars. How was I going to get home safely? What if today you could know without a doubt that you are going to Heaven? Would that take the pressure off the back of your mind and replace it with a sense of happiness that you never had before? Wouldn’t that change your life for the better? How would you like to trade your sense of dread for a sense of happiness? You’re probably saying that’s too simple, it can’t be that easy! Surely there’s more to it than that! What church do I have to join, What do I have to give up in my life to achieve this happiness? How many doors per day do I have to knock on? The simple truth is that it is easy to secure your place in Heaven. To me, it doesn’t make good sense to go through life with the feeling of dread stashed in the back of your mind waiting to attack your happy moments and make you miserable every chance it gets. The way to finally rid yourself of these happiness-stealing moments is to first settle the question of where are you going to spend eternity? Jesus knows what’s inside of each of us and wants us to get the most out of life that is why he said in Matthew 6:33: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Two very important words are worth talking about. Notice Jesus says “First seek” Jesus knows that until you settle the question about where you are going to spend eternity you will never be able to relax and enjoy life to the fullest. Next, we see that this verse says to seek God and His righteousness. Why doesn’t the passage say to seek God and your righteousness? This passage says “Seek God and His righteous” because we don’t have any righteousness of our own nor are we able to achieve any of our own righteousness. This is why Jesus offers us His righteousness for free. This is really a very generous offer! If you say that you don’t want His righteousness and you want to work on getting your own righteousness you will find that this goal is unobtainable and leads to a very frustrating life. The Bible also says that if you attempt to work for your own righteousness you are not accumulating wealth you are really accumulating debt. We read this passage in Romans 4:4; Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. Not only are you not accumulating wealth you are indirectly insulting God by saying that the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross wasn’t enough to save you. The Bible says that you are saved by grace through faith and that salvation is a free gift of God. We need to understand that Jesus went through a lot of pain to get us a free ticket to Heaven. He wants to see everybody in Heaven that’s why He paid the full price to get us there and that’s why He made it extremely easy for us to be with Him. That’s why the Bible says So exactly how do we attain this free ticket to Heaven? We can find out exactly how easy this is by reading the instructions in Ephesians 13, “ In Him, you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, “ The word “gospel” translates “good news”. That’s why the first four books of the new testament are called the “gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. So if we take the first sentence of this verse and convert it to a more understandable language it would read “After you read the truth contained in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and you believe this to be the word of God, at that time you will be sealed by the holy spirit of promise. Once you are sealed nothing in Heaven or on earth will be able to undo this. The Bible also states that anybody who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Romans 10:13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” It’s that simple! if you haven’t already done this make this a top priority, Read the gospels in the new testament ( make sure it’s a Bible you are able to understand.) Upon completion ask yourself “Do I believe this? If the answer is yes then call on the name of the Lord, Ask Jesus to seal you with his Holy Spirit. From this point on you are now a child of God and will be welcomed into His kingdom. Now you can finally silence that nagging voice inside you making your life very uncomfortable.
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