Are You Cashing-In?

Why are so many people unhappy?

In his article, A New Year – A New Life, Steve Shepherd gave his idea of a perfect world. He said:

“In a perfect world you would feel as good at 60 as you did at 17. And you would be as smart at 60 as you thought you were at 17.
In a perfect world professional basketball, baseball, and football players would be complaining because schoolteachers were signing multi-million dollar contracts.
In a perfect world potato chips would have calories, but if eaten with dip, the calories would be neutralized.
In a perfect world, mail would always be early, and the check in the mail would always be for more than you expected it to be.”

In our own Declaration of Independence, we are guaranteed “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.

“… The pursuit of happiness.”

I think our Founding Fathers may have understood that, while man may have the power to allow others to pursue happiness, the only one who can guarantee true happiness is God.

So… why are so many people unhappy?

A big part of it could be a misunderstanding of what prosperity is. While in some religious circles prosperity has been saddled with negative connotations, in the Bible, prosperity is very positive, and denotes much more than a financial position.

Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. ~ III John 1:2

In God’s economy, prosperity goes so far beyond financial success and multiplied possessions. Plenty of miserable people have those things. True soul prosperity (III John 1:2) is born out of listening to Godly counsel (Psalm 1:1), maintaining a vital connection with the LORD (Psalm 1:2), recognizing prosperity’s purpose in your life, and maintaining a healthy balance in all we do (Psalm 1:3).

Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400.

Yes, every single morning.

However, there’s a catch: Every dollar that is left by the end of the business day is debited. Whatever you failed to use by the end of the day is gone, unable to be recovered.

So what would you do? I would imagine that you would draw out every penny.

The fact is, each of us has such a bank. The bank is called “LIFE” and it’s currency is “TIME”.

Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the day’s deposits… the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the “tomorrow.” You must live in the present on today’s deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success!

The clock is running… it is your future.

Make the most of today.

Be sure to join me this coming Sunday as I continue my series Seven Words That Work Wonders. Service starts at 10:30a.m. To watch live, click here.