15 days in the Word with John Piper: Day 1

I have started a devotional plan called 15 Days in the Word with John Piper, accessed through www.youversion.com

Day 1 focuses on the security of our happiness.  What do we derive our happiness from?  For many people it is success, fame, reputation, friends, things of this world, etc.  However, God calls us to derive our true joy from Him and our security as his children and our inheritance in Heaven.  If our happiness is dependent on our success, then we will spend the majority of our lives unhappy!   Unfortunately, success is relative.  What one person thinks is "making it," one person thinks is only the beginning.  No wonder many rich people are more depressed than those who don't have money.  They have more money than they can count, so they think they should feel successful, but many times they don't; they are cursed with the eternal desire for more, more, more..  

Therefore, God calls us not to base our happiness in our achievements or our success because our happiness will not be consistent, nor based on true worth.  Your "kingdom" that you are building here on this Earth may not last long after you die.  It may even be taken away from you before you die.  What a shame it is to invest in yourself and your own kingdom to watch it be reduced to nothing right before your eyes.  When some people lose everything that they have, they turn to suicide.  Why?  If your happiness is in God and the promise that he made to all of us (eternal life with Him in heaven), where it is rightfully secured, why would someone do such a thing?  The things of this world and the blessings that God give us are to help us live, NOT to be the reason for living.   By having our happiness secured in Heaven, God rescues us from this kind of lifestyle.  

I like to turn to this verse during difficult times:

¹¹ “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

-Matthew 5:11–12

Also, 

"Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him."

-James 1:12 

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"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." Deut. 6.