APPLICATION
1. What are the ways you can enjoy God and be happy with Him.
2. Identify the things that hinder you from trusting God fully.
3. Share an experience where you trusted God in a situation
and an experience where you did not trust Him. How did you
learn from that?
PRAYER
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1. Pray for the right heart - to enjoy Him, His timing and His
finish work.
2. Pray for a heart that will continually delight in Him and have
desires that are from Him.
3. Pray for people whom you would want to find happiness
through the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Pray that God will use
you to share the gospel to them.
 UP
Week 2: HOW TO BE HAPPY
NOTES
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WARM
1. Share something that makes you happy and excited.
2. Share something you are patiently waiting for.
3. Share a time when you were asked to plan something. What
happened?

I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure;
enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity.
(Ecclesiastes 2:1 ESV)
Everyone wants to be happy. Hanging out, watching a movie,
getting a good grade, or jamming with friends make us feel food and
happy. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word happy is
defined as "feeling pleasure and enjoyment because of your life,
situation, etc." We pursue happiness through our family, friends, or the
things we do. Solomon, the son of King David, is known as the wisest
man of his time. He pursued happiness and revealed the way to true
happiness.
1. Enjoy God's blessings, not be consumed by it.
There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink
and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God,
for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?
(Ecclesiastes 2:24-25 ESV)
Have you ever received a gift where you forgot to even thank the
giver? We tend to do that when we are too focused on the gift. God
loves to give us blessings. He is our Father and He wants us to enjoy
the things He gives us. But when we love His gifts more than Him, we
miss out on what is important: our relationship with Him. To illustrate,
sometimes when we study we tend to focus more on getting high
grades more than enjoying to learn. God doesn't want us to merely
focus on scores; He wants us to learn well. As we learn, we not only
honor our parents but also glorify God because we are faithful to the
season we are in. Focusing on the Giver more than the blessing makes
us truly enjoy the blessing. Remember to enjoy God's blessings because
it is His personal affection to us.
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2. Enjoy God's timing, not go ahead of it.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity
into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done
from the beginning to the end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV)
Have you ever tried eating a mango that's not fully ripe? Does it taste
sour? Going ahead of God's timing is like spoiling a gift that is intended
to be beautiful. What was intended to be sweet can turn sour and
unpleasant. God has the best plans and gifts for us, even far more than
we can ever imagine but we have to understand that He gives it at His
perfect timing. Waiting for His perfect timing allows us to focus on
Him, taking full pleasure of His presence and having our hearts molded
by Him. While waiting, we are being prepared to receive His perfect
and pleasing gift. Do you believe that God wants the best for us? Are
you ready to trust God's perfect timing?
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3. Enjoy God's finished work, not strive for it.
I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be
added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people
fear before him. (Ecclesiastes 3:14 ESV)
Have you ever planned something and it didn't go according to your
plan? It can be frustrating and disappointing. In this verse, Solomon
understood that God is sovereign. Being sovereign means whatever
God plans, He fulfills it. That is why the Psalmist mentions that we
should delight ourselves in God and He will give us the desires of our
heart (Psalm 37:4). To delight means to be moldable. We allow Him to
mold us according to His purpose for He works for the good of those
who love Him (Romans 8:28). As we delight ourselves in Him, He will
be the one to give us right desires – desires that are from Him. He has
proven that He is trustworthy for while we were yet still sinners, Christ
died for us so we may be reconciled to Him. Do you trust His will and
plans for you?
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