We’re all looking for that ticket to happiness. What is it we are missing and how can we get it so we are always happy? Our Creator designed us to find the sweet secret of happiness within only in HIM.

Scripture refers to this inner happiness as contentment. The Hebrew word was autarkeia and it meant a mind set on the secret of happiness completely independent of all outward things. Meaning nothing outside of you can make you truly happy, it’s all about what’s in you. And my sister, God has been working in you to bring you to this place of sweet happiness. Contentment. Autarkeia.

Paul writes in 1 Timothy 6: 6-8, “True godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.”

Is that you today … don’t you really have enough already? You have food for today. You have clothes to put on today. Then you have the makings of great wealth in contentment. When we know and trust God, we can accept things as they are, believing it’s all under the wise and loving providence of our God who loves us wildly, knows what is good for us and is always working all things together for our good.

Is that who your God is? He sees all things and knows all things. He’s involved in every detail of your life. He loves you wildly, relentlessly, and endlessly. He has good plans for you and he will work everything together to bring you into those good plans for your life today, for your future, and for your eternity.

My friend, if there’s any part of that you question, then you will continually struggle with this sweet secret of happiness within called contentment.

The enemy cannot offer contentment, because he does not love you. He does not want what is best for you. His plans are to kill everything good in your life, steal everything God has given you, and destroy every ounce of hope, faith and love in you. What the enemy offers as a counterfeit to God’s contentment is a constant quest for more.

More money. More success. More things. More followers. More fame. More, more, more.

The truth is, there’s nothing inherently wrong about any of those things, other than the claws they set deep within us making us crave more.

Really, think about it … Do you make more money today than you once even dared to think was possible? And now, even with that higher salary and bigger paycheck, you think more would be better, huh? The claws are in deep, Sis.

1 Timothy 6:10 TPT, “Craving more money pushes us away from faith into error, compounding misery in our lives.” Replace the word ‘money’ with anything you’re wanting more of and test it to see if it’s true. If you’re a shoes girl, you know the sheer excitement over putting on those new shoes. But the excitement is short lived and then you need another pair of new shoes. Then more and more. And soon, you’re a slave to the unending hunger for more and you’ve literally created misery in your life.

This desire for more and more replaces God’s offer of contentment. Contentment says “ahhhh, this is good just as it is and I am happy within.” But the enemy’s counterfeit offer of more comes in and steals our happiness and turns our focus to what else there could be.

You know, I’ve never once seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul trailer. You can’t take any of this with you, so why have we allowed it to become our focus during our short time in this life? Oh, I know why … because we have been tricked.

If the enemy of your soul can’t have your soul, then he will settle for your happiness. He will settle for keeping you so stirred up in a quest for more that you never feel content. He will consider it a win if he can steal that sweet secret of happiness within and keep you on the perpetual prowl for what’s missing.

Psalm 62:10, “If riches increase, do not set your heart on them.” Our God is a God of riches. Honey, he paves the streets of heaven in GOLD … he has absolutely no issue with fine things. An ounce of gold is currently valued at over 2,600 US dollars. And that’s the pavement of heaven!

His lavish love delights in giving us good things. There’s no end to God’s resources, he has it all. However, the problem becomes when our hearts are set on these things. When our lives are centered on what we can get, what we can earn, what we can buy, what we can build, then we lose our way … and we forfeit our contentment.

Think about this … however excited you are to get that thing is how disappointed you would be to lose that thing. This level of excitement and disappointment reveals our traded contentment. Honey, God wants you to be content WITHOUT IT. If he knows you will be content without it, then he knows he can open his hand and bless you with it. If he knows your contentment would remain if you lost what he had given you, then he knows you have truly embraced the sweet secret of happiness within.

Paul writes in Philippians 4:11-12, “I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.” Paul knew the sweet secret of happiness. He had found the gift of contentment.

Contentment. Autarkeia. Because we know God loves us and works in every detail of our lives according to his good plans, we can accept things exactly as they are. It is well with my soul.

As a little girl, I went to church a few times with my Grandma. I remember her singing that old church hymn, “It Is Well With My Soul.” Have you ever heard the story behind that song?

The song was written by Horatio Spafford. Horatio had been a successful attorney and real estate investor, but he lost his fortune in the great Chicago fire of 1871. Around the same time, his 4 year old son died of scarlet fever.

He thought a vacation away from everything would be good for his family, so he sent his wife & 4 daughters on a ship to England where he would later meet them for time away. However, while crossing the Atlantic ocean, the ship crashed and sank. All 4 of Horatio Spafford’s daughters died. His wife survived and sent a telegram that said, “Saved alone. What shall I do?”

Horatio set sail for England to get to his wife. At one point on the voyage, the captain of the ship told Horatio they were passing over the spot where the shipwreck had occurred. As Horatio thought about his daughters who had died there, words of comfort and hope filled his heart and mind. He wrote them down and they are the old church hymn our Grandma’s sang:

When peace like a river,
attendeth my way, 

When sorrows like sea billows roll—

Whatever my lot,
thou hast taught me to know 

It is well, it is well with my soul.

If God can offer contentment to a man who has literally lost everything, he can offer contentment to this girl who’s stressed about her house. To the girl who’s stressed about her job, he’s offering contentment no matter what happens with it. To the girl who’s stressed about her marriage, he’s offering contentment deep within that doesn’t even make sense.

It’s all so temporary. Set your mind on the eternal and find the sweet secret to happiness within.

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