Everyone wants to be happy. But most people seek happiness in earthly possessions, education, and experiences. They do not understand that we can only find true joy in the Lord: “You will teach me how to live a holy life. Being with you will fill me with joy; at your right hand I will find pleasure forever.” Psalm 16:11 (NCV).
Our bodies are made from this earth, and by nature we are drawn to that which is earthly. But God has made it so that we will never be truly happy until we come into contact with Him. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews says, “How much more, then, should we submit to our spiritual Father and live!” Hebrews 12:9 (GNT).
Where to find true contentment
“There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” Proverbs 4:12 (NIV). Seeking pleasures in the earthly things can feel right for us, but we have many examples of people who have much of this world’s treasures but never experience true joy. To find true joy we need to submit to our heavenly Father, and do as it is written in Colossians 3:1-2 (GNT): “… set your hearts on the things that are in heaven, where Christ sits on his throne at the right side of God. Keep your minds fixed on things there, not on things here on earth.” There we will find true contentment at the right hand of God.
There we learn to put to death “whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” Colossians 3:5 (NIV). Jesus teaches us through the Spirit to put to death those things that we as human beings think are going to bring us joy. We experience what the prophets and the saints in the Old Testament longed to look into: “They tried to find out when the time would be and how it would come. This was the time to which Christ's Spirit in them was pointing, in predicting the sufferings that Christ would have to endure and the glory that would follow.” 1 Peter 1:11 (GNT).
Now that Jesus has opened a “new and living way … through the veil, that is, His flesh,” we can come into God’s presence. (Hebrews 10:19.) The Fall caused a separation between God and man, but Jesus has restored this connection. Now, as never before, we can sit at His right hand and put the “enemies” in our sinful human nature under our feet like it says in Psalm 110:1 (GNT): “The LORD said to my lord, ‘Sit here at my right side until I put your enemies under your feet.’"
As these enemies are put under our feet, we gain power over them and get more and more joy in our life. For example, when we are able to show love in a situation that before would have made us bitter, offended or angry, that gives us true gladness in our heart.
This is the good news of the gospel that is available to anyone who is willing to give up everything for such a life.
