Oswald Chambers: Hope - A Holy Promise Sample

Happiness is a thing that comes and goes, it can never be an end in itself; holiness, not happiness, is the end of man. The great design of God in the creation of man is that he might “glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” A man never knows joy until he gets rightly related to God. Satan’s claim is that he can make a man satisfied without God, but all he succeeds in doing is to give happiness and pleasure, never joy. Our lives mean much more than we can tell, they fulfill some purpose of God about which we know nothing; our part is to trust in the Lord with all our heart and not lean to our own understanding.

Earthly wisdom can never come near the threshold of the Divine; if we stop short of the Divine we stop short of God’s purpose for our lives.

Reflection Questions: Do I spend more time and energy pursuing my “right” to happiness or God’s call to righteousness? If all I’m hoping for is happiness, what am I in danger of missing?

Quotations taken from Bringing Sons to Glory, © Discovery House Publishers