Getting a good start is important in anything we do. To live well throughout the week we need to give due diligence to the Lord’s day. It serves as a spring broad to propel us through the difficult days ahead. J. R. Miller wrote:“The influence of the Sunday, like a precious perfume, should pervade all the days of the week. Its spirit of holiness and reverence should flow down into all the paths of the other days. Its voices of hope and joy should become inspirations in all our cares and toils in the outside world. Its teaching should be the guide of hand and foot in the midst of all trial and temptation. Its words of comfort should be as lamps shining in the sick room and in the chambers of sorrow. Its visions of spiritual beauty should be translated into reality in conduct, disposition, and character.

A well spent Sunday is an excellent preparation for a week amid cares and struggles. There is blessing in the Sunday rest. We cannot go on forever; we must pause here and there to renew our strength.

True Sunday rest, however, is not merely the cessation of all effort, the dropping of all work. As far as possible, we should seek to be freed from the common tasks of the other days. Happy is he who can leave behind him, on Saturday night, all his weekday affairs, to enjoy a Sunday in heavenly places, as it were, engaged with thoughts and occupations altogether different from those of the busy week. This even alone, gives rest.

As for the Sunday itself, it should be a day for the uplifting of the whole life. A tourist among the Alps tells of climbing one of the mountains in a dense and dripping mist, until at length he passed through the clouds, and stood on a lofty peak in the clear sunlight. Beneath him lay the fog, like a waveless sea of white vapor; and, as he listened, he could hear the sounds of labor, the lowing of the cattle, and the peals of the village bells, coming up from the valleys below. As he stood there, he saw a bird fly up out of the mists, soar about for a little while, and then dart down again and disappear.

What those moments of sunshine were to the bird, coming up out of the cloud, the Sunday should be to us. During weekdays we live down in the low valleys of life, amid the mists. Life is not easy for us; it is full of struggle and burden-bearing. Then Sunday comes; and we fly up out of the low climates of care, toil, and tears—and spend one day in the pure, sweet air of God’s love and peace. There we have new visions of beauty. We get near to the heart of Christ, into the warmth of His love. We come into the goodly fellowship of Christian people, and get fresh inspiration from the contact.

Thus we are lifted up for one day out of the atmosphere of earthliness, into a region of peace, calm, and quiet! We see all things more plainly in the unclouded sky; and we are prepared to being another week with new views of duty, under the influence of fresh motives, and with our life-fountains refilled. Thus the Sunday rest prepares us for the world and the struggle of the other days. We learn new lessons, which we are to live out in the common experience of the life before us. We see the patterns of heavenly things—as we read our Bible, and bow before God in prayer; and we are to go down from the holy mount—to weave the fashion of these patterns into the fabric of our character. We should be better, truer-souled, and richer-hearted all the week—because of the Sunday inspirations. We should carry the holy impressions, the sacred influences, in our heart as we go out into the world, singing the songs of heaven amid earth’s clatter and noise. True Sunday-keeping makes us ready for true weekday-living.” Think about it!

Fall, my favorite time of the year, is almost here. For those who enjoy hunting this gets their blood to pumping. Whether it’s doves, ducks, or deer, when the season rolls around hunters get excited, or as some would say–“Happy, happy, happy”! While others care nothing about this sport, there is one type of hunting that just about everyone engages in, and its season is always open. I’m talking about the hunt for happiness.

Some people will do anything if they think it will make them happy. They will live at break neck speed, pursue every pleasure, spend every penny, explore every avenue, violate any rule, and abuse any relationship, if they think they can bag their limit of happiness. Strangely enough they never limit-out. It’s all hunting and no finding. But, they never give up. As strange as it might seem, they make themselves miserable trying to make themselves happy. Yet they keep hunting.

It should be obvious by now that absolutely nothing can make some people happy. The very fact that they never quit hunting happiness proves my point. What they don’t understand is that happiness never comes as a result of pursuing it. That’s getting the cart before the horse. Happiness is something that comes to us, not something we can go get. No amount of effort can produce happiness. We often speak about happiness being a choice, and there is some truth to that, but not in the sense that most people think. Strong resolve or even bulldog tenacity alone is never enough. The “choice” that brings happiness is the choice to surrender ourselves lock-stock-and -barrel to the Lord — to do our best to bring Him pleasure.

The happiest, most contented, satisfied people on earth are those who are fully committed to pleasing God rather than self. And that’s the way it works for everyone. Many have wasted their lives hunting happiness without ever finding it. But the moment you stop hunting it and start seeking the will of God happiness comes to you. The man who said,”I have learned, in whatever state I am, therewith to be content”( Phil. 4:11), first said, “For to me to live is Christ”(Phil. 1:21). Only those who seek to please God will ever be pleased with life. So, when you set out to bag that ten-point buck, or limit-out on some other game, I wish you well–but, please don’t think it will bring you lasting happiness. That comes only by seeking to please God. Think about it!