How to Make Yourself Truly Happy: Security

 I have recently completed an article on how a sense of purpose will help lead you to complete happiness. I am totally convinced that it will, but as I said in that article, there are several components that need to be present in your life in order to make you truly happy. The first is purpose, and the second is security.

We all need security in our lives. There is nothing worse than living from one day to the next, not knowing when your life is going to cave in around you and it will all be over. I have been moved to tears watching refugees forced from their homes in Africa over recent years. People close to starvation, stripped of everything that made them who they were and living in temporary tent towns on the verges of wastelands. Whilst this may be a lifetime away from where we are in terms of our personal circumstances, there is something so telling about those events that hit us inside. There is a common thread that runs through humanity that screams at us when we see that kind of thing. It is the need for security.

We can try and attain security through a number of means. We can try and secure a financial future for ourselves by saving or investing. We can try and buy all the best and nicest things so that we are surrounded by lots of beautiful things. We can try and live in the most elaborate of houses in an attempt to attain some measure of security.

But there is a problem with that. What if you lost everything? Look at the worlds financial situation, in October and November of 2008, so many people that had ‘bought’ security with stocks, shares, investments and savings were suddenly left like the refugees in Africa, with all that had secured them being stripped away. Icelandic banks were refusing to give their customers any money from their bank accounts. People were left with nothing – literally in some cases.

In my quest for happiness I have found that security cannot be found in possessions or in belongings. It cannot be found in nice houses or in fancy cars. Security is something that needs to be non moving. Previously people felt that long established banks (such as Icsave) were non moving, but that turned out to be false. Your security needs to be built on a real solid rock. For my money I have not found a better rock than Jesus Christ. The lord gives and he takes away. When I have plenty then it is with his blessing, when I have nothing then it is with his blessing. His Bible teaches that he will provide for my every need – not necessarily my wants, but I will never go without what I need in order to live the life he wants me to lead.

As a Christian, you should get your security not from possessions or anything else of this world. You should draw on the Lord for your security, and his undying love for you – even if you find yourself stripped of all you have and living in a tent on the verge of wastelands, it happened to the apostles in the New Testament – just read the book of Acts to see for yourself!