Happy People

"Truly happy people are those who carefully study God's perfect law that makes people free, and they continue to study it.  They do not forget what they heard, but they obey what God's teaching says.  Those who do this will be made happy.  (James 1:25)

Daily Bible reading keeps me in range of God's voice.  The more I read, the more I understand God's story, His character, His heart.  I need to pray for the desire to read and for the Holy Spirit to illumine what I read.

The Bible is God's love story.  The Bible was recorded by men, who were inspired by God Himself.  The Bible claims to be the very Word of God.  "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17).  Certainly there are obscure and confusing passages, but that is one more reason to read the Bible in entirety to get the big picture.  Struggling with something that you have read?  Pray for understanding.  God is asking us to live in the grace of what we do understand.  God wants to nourish us spiritually, He gave us His truth that is "able to build you up"  (Acts 20:32).

The Bible is God's love story, of how He created people for relationship, how people chose to sin against God and how God planned to redeem people back from sin.  The Old Testament looks forward to a Savior, the New Testament looks back to how God would bring a Savior out of the nation that He set apart.  The final chapter in the story we look forward to, when Christ will come again to make all things new.  All creation will praise Jesus who gives all glory to god the Father.

Do I matter to God?  Yes, Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so!  Dive in read the Gospels.  Read the Psalms, read the doubt and the faith.  Read the description of the suffering servant in Isaiah 53, then read the description of the crucifixion of Jesus.  The Bible says, "Christ died for the ungodly.  But God demonstrates His own love for us in this:  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.....we have now been justified by the blood"  (made right through what Jesus did)  (Romans 5:6, 8).

Warren Wiersbe says, "We use the Bible devotionally when we allow it to speak to us personally as we are taught by the Spirit of God (John 14:26; 15:26; 16:13-15).  All Scripture was not written to us, but it was written for us."

I heard a story about a dad asking his daughter to go clean her room.  First, notice the relationship, she was his daughter.  You are God's child when you trust by faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross.  The girl went to her room and came back a little later and said, "Dad I memorized what you said."  The faither was surprised  "you memorized what I said?"  "Yes", the girl answered, "Go and clean your room."  "That's great the father replied, "did you do it?"  "No", she answered, "but I discussed what you said with my girlfriends.  We all agree, Great Words!"

The Bible is God's story, He wants you to enjoy an abundant life as His follower.  The Bible does contain Great Words.   But don't just read the Bible, memorize it and spend time with others discussing it, do what it says.  Show Him that you love Him by spending time hearing Him speak to you through His Word.  Pray His word back to Him.  Act on what you do understand.  "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says.  Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like (James 1:22-24).  

The Bible says, that we will grow in our understanding, you won't understand everything, but God wants you to know and understand Him.  1 Corinthians 13:11-13 says, "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I put childish things behind me.  Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully know.  And now these three remain;  faith, hope, and love.  but the greatest of these is love."

The Bible says, you will be happy when you study and obey.  Jesus told His followers, "if you love me you will obey me."  He said, "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house;  yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock"  (Matthew 7:24-27.  Truly happy people are those who carefully study God's perfect law that makes people free, and they continue to study it.  They do not forget what they heard, but they obey what God's teaching says.  Those who do this will be made happy (James 1:25).  

Trust and obey, there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.