One Prayer for Happiness that God Actually Loves to Answer
How to Pray So That You KNOW You'll Get Your Answer, Chapter 10
Chapter 10: One Prayer for Happiness that God Loves to Answer
And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.” (Luke 11:3-4 ESV)
We want to be happy.
We really, really want to be happy.
We hate not being happy. We will do anything to feel happy — spending money we don’t have, doing things we’ll regret, saying things we can’t back up, believing claims we know are lies. We will do it all and more just for a few fleeting moments where we can put the pain aside and just feel good.
We really want to be happy.
There are million things surrounding us claiming they can make us happy. Through the slimmest of promises they can take us captive and leave us worse off than we started.
The pursuit of happiness runs through a minefield of fake joys and fleeting pleasures. The pursuit of happiness ends up producing pain. Scars start to outnumber smiles.
Jesus knows this struggle. He knows everyone listening to Him will fight their own way through it.
So Jesus teaches us to pray: “Father, we don't want fake happiness that fades. We want real joy. We want real love. We want peace that transcends understanding.
“Father, lead us away from all these temptations into false happiness and lesser joys. Lead us into truth.
“Father, lead us to You, because that's where we get true love. That's where we get true hope. That's where we get true joy and peace. Only in you, God.
So lead us away from all these other temptations and lead us straight to You. We want to be happy. We want You.”
How do you know that God will answer this prayer?
Because He already is. God wants you to be happier than you have ever dreamed possible. That’s why Jesus did what He did, dying in your place on the Cross, taking away the weight of all sin, freeing you from death and its empty claims into the promise of true and unending life.
Jesus declared that He came to give you abundant life — not life that’s a struggle to get through each moment, but a life of abundant joy, a life you actually want to be living.
God accomplishes this in a great many ways in those who follow Him. One of the ways are the fruits of the Holy Spirit — the good things produced by His presence in your life. Everything you desire is in these fruits, all the goodness of life that makes you happy: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, even self-control.
God’s Spirit produces these fruits in you because they are what He is. God is love. He is the Creator of joy. He is the Prince of Peace, wielding peace to protect those who trust in Him.
The closer you draw to God, the more His Spirit produces these fruits in you, because He makes you like Him.
Or to say it another way: the closer you draw to God, the happier you are. The happier you are in God, the less tempting anything else will be. Why would you want a lesser happiness? You can experience the fullness of joy in its Creator.
The pre-order for How to Pray So That You KNOW You’ll Get Your Answer is now live!
The book will be released in all formats on April 2, 2025!
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