Are You Happy?

I would like to share with you excerpts from a book given to me when I was coming out of a very hard time and could not get my feet under me concerning being happy.  The title is very simple , “Learning to be Happy” by Jeremiah Burroughs.  It is an abridged version of” The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment” published in 1648.  That was a long time ago.  We really all struggle with the same things from century to century!
Here is the explanation in its own words.  This book is about happiness.  Not just any kind of happiness, but the special kind of happiness that comes from being a Christian.  We use various words such as happiness, joy, or contentment.  What all these words describe is the deep inner satisfaction that Christians feel about what God has done for them.  This inner satisfaction enables them to remain happy, and not to start complaining about God, even when things seem to be against them.
Some of the chapter titles in this book are: Christian Happiness, The Great Secret, The School of Happiness, Happiness is good for you, Complaining is Bad for You, Time to Stop Complaining.  They each explore what God wants for us and how we should try to behave while we are here.  For instance, lesson three in the school of happiness is this:
“Everything is meaningless”says the Preacher.  “What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?”  (Ecclesiastes 1:2,3) Those who are unhappy with the things this world provides are not, as they tend to think, unhappy because they do not have enough, but because the things of this world simply cannot bring happiness.  Mankind was made to know and enjoy God.  The great theologian Augustine wrote “Yea made us for yourself, and out hearts are restless until they rest in you.”  “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?”  (Isaiah 55:2) Nothing is worth having without God.
Lesson five: Christians are travelers.  They are just passing through this world, just camping in their bodies.  They are preparing for an eternity in heaven when God will give them perfect resurrection bodies.  So it is foolish to get too unhappy about the state of our bodies.  The people we read about in Hebrews 11 “admitted they were aliens and strangers on earth..... they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one.  Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them” (verses 13,16).  Christians must learn to think like this.  Travelers who are away from home accept some inconveniences, such as poor food, or difficult traveling conditions.  Christians have an eternal home, and the inconvenience of their stay on earth should not worry them unduly.
Happy Christians are those who make best use of the spiritual gifts God gives them, such as faith, humility, love, patience, wisdom, and hope.  God wants to see these things develop in his people, because the lives of happy Christians are often a helpful influence on non-christians.  For example, people who suffer without complaining are unusual: Christians who do so give a good testimony which gives glory to God.
The opposite of happiness is a bitter, complaining spirit that sees the worst side of everything.  Complaining is both sinful and unhelpful.  A complaining spirit is like a bad wound that has gone septic.  The infected flesh cannot be treated: it must be cut away or the infection will spread through the whole body.  A tendency to complain, if it is not checked, will spread through the whole of our lives and blight everything.
Chapter 8 is called no excuses.  It gets to the heart of the excuses we use to rationalize our complaining and unhappy spirits. It is well worth your time to read!
So, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.”  (Philippians 4:1)