January 1

Read: Matthew 5:1-12

Happy are the kind-hearted, for they will have kindness shown to them! Happy are the pure in heart, Joy they will see God! (Matthew 5:7-8, The Gospels, J. B. Phillips, 1952 edition)

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! I will say it a score of times today. Friends will wish me the same. Will our greetings be only friendly formalities or will they be prophecies of good things to come in the months ahead? The answer depends very little on my circumstances. This year I may have a serious illness, or be forced to retire, or fail to get a promotion. These will be disappointments but they cannot thwart the intent of my friends’ greetings. It can still be a happy new year.

Happiness is not something that depends significantly on where I am or what is done to me. It does not come from the outside in, but rather from the inside out. Happiness is God’s good gift to those who are rightly related to Him and to the people around them. I cannot find happiness by searching for it. I cannot even pray for happiness and expect God to give it. I can, however, earnestly seek to find God’s will for my life, In doing His will I may confidently expect to find life’s ultimate satisfaction. I can give myself in honest effort to help another and discover happiness in helpfulness. But the happiness is always a by-product of loving God and sharing myself with my fellowman.

If I know what I am saying when I wish my friend “Happy New Year!” I am wishing that this shall be a year in which he shall walk with God and do something for folk who are near him. If I am to have the happy new year that my friends have wished for me I must open the floodgates through which happiness flows in. I must keep my spirit open to the presence of God and keep my heart open to the needs of men.

Resolution For Today

I resolve this year to follow Jesus’ formula for happiness. I shall seek to love God with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my strength; and to love my neighbor as myself.