Randy Alcorn

In this video, Randy Alcorn and Pastor Greg Laurie discuss Heaven, happiness and the holiday season at Harvest Christian Church in Riverside, CA.

As we enter the Advent season, there’s no more worthy subject to set our minds on than Jesus Himself. He is “the Alpha and the Omega…the Beginning and the End” (Revelation 22:13), the One this Christmas season is all about. (And the One the rest of the year should be about too!)

Happy people celebrate their conversion not just once, but over and over. They are profoundly grateful for what God has done for them.

We instinctively imagine that spending on ourselves will make us happiest. But our greatest joy actually comes when we give to others. It really is true what Jesus said: “There is more happiness in giving than in receiving” (Acts 20:35, GNT). 

The happiness described in Scripture is all the richer because it doesn’t involve denial or pretense and can be experienced amid severe difficulty. Christ-followers don’t preach the flimsy kind of happiness that’s built on wishful thinking. Instead, our basis for happiness remains true—and sometimes becomes clearer—in suffering.

There’s still a lot of pushback on the idea of sharing about our giving, but not as much is there was 30 years ago when the first edition of my book Money, Possessions, and Eternity came out. I think people are realizing giving isn’t the only thing people are tempted to be proud of, and in Matthew 6 it’s inseparable from prayer and fasting.

We should seek to please our Lord, to meet the needs of the poor and needy, to be an encouragement to others, etc. But if we “believe that He is a rewarder” (Hebrews 11:6), then it is right, not wrong, to also want to get God’s blessing and reward.

From mid-November to early January, our lives change, bringing many things that are delightful, but which increase our pressure and fatigue! May this article remind you to focus on what’s truly most important in this season, and to take time to sit at Jesus’ feet.

Reminding yourself of God’s unchanging character and love and faithfulness is critical to being able to rise above the adversity of circumstances that seem to change like the weather.