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My First Book:
What Happiness & Contentment Must Not be Linked To
Posted in: Uncategorized by DannyTice on February 4, 2010
Happiness that is linked to the stock market will ebb and flow with the condition of our portfolio. Economic recessions and depressions have often deeply affected people psychologically. If our happiness is directly tied to our economic situation then we are vulnerable emotionally. Economic issues are usually out of our control so our joy may be hijacked at any moment when our bank account staggers during financial adversity. If our hearts are tethered to the stock market our joy goes up when the market goes up and our joy goes down when the market plunges. You as a person are worth more than your portfolio. You are made in the image of God. You were made to have a deep and abiding relationship with the Lord. He loves you and has not left you regardless of where your financial situation is today. No manner of adversity can separate you from his love and care. Your value and self-worth must not be tied to what you possess but with who possesses you. The great news is that God loves you. He is crazy about you. Paul said in Romans, “If God be for you who can be against you.” (Romans 8:31) Someone once said, “If God had a refrigerator your picture would be on it!” Drink in these words from the pen of the Apostle Paul as he wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35-39
What gives us emotional buoyancy in life is not what we have but who has us. Meaningful living flows out of a personal relationship with Christ. An abiding relationship with Jesus will ground and sustain us through the vicissitudes of life. Jesus succinctly summarized where we find our worth in life. He distinctively stated that our worth and identity as people should not be built upon possessions but upon our connection with himself.
Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Luke 12:15