Hope - Vital to Happiness

A rently promoted concept dubbed positive psych0logy holds that optimism, cultivated by positive thinking and by focusing on one's personal strengths, can lead to happiness.  Few would deny that an optimistic  view of life and of the future adds to our happiness.  However, such optimism  has to be based on fact, not just wishful thinking.  Besides no amount of optimism or positive thinking will elimate war, starvation, disease,  pollution, old age, sickness, or death - things that rob so many of their happiness.  Nonetheless, optimism does have its place.

Interestingly, the Bible does not use the word optimism; it uses a more powerful word - hope.  Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary defines "hope" as used in the Bible as "favorable and confident expectation, . . .the happy anticipation of good. In Bible usage, hope is more than an optimistic view of a situation.  It also refers to the thing upon which one's hope is fixed.  (Ephesians 4:4;  1 Peter 1:3)  The  Christian hope, for instance, is that all the undesirable things mentioned in the preceding paragraph will soon be done away with. (Psalm 37:9-11, 29) But it embraces more.

Christians look forward to the time, when faithful humans will attain to perfect life on a paradise earth.  (Luke 23:42, 43 ) Enlarging on that hope, Revelation 21:3, 4 says: "Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his peoples. . . . And he will wipe out ever tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore.  The former things have passed away."

Any one who expects to have such a future has every reason to be happy, even if his present circumstances leave much to be desired.  (James 1:12)  So why  not investigate the Bible and find out why you can believe it.  Strengthen you hope by spending  time each day reading the Bible.  Doing so will enrich you spiritually, help you avoid the things that rob people of happiness, and build up your sense of contentment.  Yes, the ultimate secret to real happiness is doing the will of God.  (Ecclesiastes 12:13) A life built on obeying the Bible's  precepts is a happy life, for Jesus said: "Happy are those hearing the word of God and keeping it!" - Luke 11:28.

Next time: What Is the Spiritual Paradise?

The Watchtower, 2001