Our Daily Bread 23 August 2018 Devotional
Topic: An Enduring Happiness
Read: Psalm 34:1–14, Bible in a Year: Psalms 113–115; 1 Corinthians 6
Scripture: Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days . . . . Turn from evil and do good. Psalm 34:12,14
Message: Often we hear that happiness comes from doing things our own way. That, however, is not true. That philosophy leads only to emptiness, anxiety, and heartache.
Poet W. H. Auden observed people as they attempted to find an escape in pleasures. He wrote of such people: “Lost in a haunted wood, / Children afraid of the night / Who have never been happy or good.”
The psalmist David sings of the remedy for our fears and unhappiness. “I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears” (Psalm 34:4). Happiness is doing things God’s way, a fact that can be verified every day. “Those who look to him are radiant,” writes David (v. 5). Just try it and you’ll see. That’s what he means when he says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (v. 8).
Our Daily Bread 23 August 2018 Devotional – An Enduring Happiness
We say, “Seeing is believing.” That’s how we know things in this world. Show me proof and I’ll believe it. God puts it the other way around. Believing is seeing. “Taste and then you will see.”
Take the Lord at His word. Do the very next thing He is asking you to do and you will see. He will give you grace to do the right thing and more: He will give you Himself—the only source of goodness—and with it, enduring happiness.
Prayer: Lord, sometimes we must simply pray: “I believe. Help my unbelief.” Help us trust You by doing what You have given us to do today.
Thought for the Day: Happiness is doing the right thing.
Our Daily Bread 23 August 2018 Devotional was written By David H. Roper [Our Daily Bread Ministries.]