I usually really don’t like modern day newly made up lingo especially when it’s all about self knowing full well Jesus calls His followers to deny self, take up our crosses, and follow Him. I usually don’t pay much attention to the sayings and try as best I can to stay focused on God and His Word and His will for my life and ministry. But I couldn’t help but pay attention to yet another new saying. Perhaps you have heard it. “My happy place.” Or, “Your happy place”. And, “Find your happy place.”
Ugh. The last thing I need is to be tempted to go back to my decades of being so self-centered and so consumed with pleasing myself and finding what made me happy and indulging in sin against God that I couldn’t see past myself. Isn’t what we need more than anything encouragement to deny self and to follow the leading of the Lord as we learn to live according to His ways not the world’s ways? Well, something interesting happened with this particular saying. And herein lies some encouragement for you who read this message.
After decades of failing to find any kind of lasting happiness, I found “my happy place.” And I could not be more thankful to God for leading me to this place. This “happy place” is the Lord and abiding in Him. In essence, loving God, trusting Him, enjoying Him, experiencing Him, looking to Him, putting my hope in Him, finding peace in Him, resting in Him, rejoicing in Him, pouring out my heart to Him, praising Him, praying to Him, seeking Him, hearing Him, spending time in His presence, delighting in Him, singing to Him, being corrected by Him, being transformed by Him, being forgiven by Him, finding grace in Him, putting my expectation in Him, communing with Him, His being my first love and my Lord and King and Savior and healer and master and best friend, having an intimate forever relationship with Him, etc.
Yes, my “happy place” is the Lord and abiding in Him. And there is nothing I am more thankful for in the universe than the Lord and abiding in Him – forevermore!