You Can Have A Happy Life!
Review – December 2012 – Grace & Truth Magazine
You Can Have A HAPPY LIFE
By E. C. Hadley
Format: Paperback, 40-page booklet
Available:
Grace & Truth • 210 Chestnut St. • Danville, IL 61832, USA
The desire of every normal human being is to be happy. Yet the world is filled with unhappy people desperately looking for fulfillment in money, power, popularity, alcohol, drugs, illicit sexual relationships, cults and a host of other pursuits.
The bad news is that true and lasting happiness will never be found in any of those things. In fact, the more people search for satisfaction in the things of this world, the more unhappy their lives actually become.
The good news is that a truly happy life is attainable by anyone and everyone who is willing to look beyond the feeble offerings of man to the glorious gift of God, which is full and complete salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ.
But the fact of the matter is that many Christians are neither living in the fullness nor the completeness of that which they came into when Christ entered their lives. Instead of experiencing the joy of a Christ-filled life, they are still feeling guilty, restless, worried and unhappy.
Why is this so? Because, as the author points out, there is still the burden of guilt. And where there is guilt there cannot be peace with God. Where there is no peace with God, there is no happy life. On that point, the booklet begins to take the reader through the following ten topics in an effort to build a right relationship with our Lord and Savior.
- Burden Of Guilt: “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Num. 32:23).
- Seeking Peace: “You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety” (Ps. 4:8).
- About Our Fears: “The thing I greatly feared has come upon me” (Job 3:25).
- Joy Of Forgiveness: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful ... to forgive” (1 Jn.1:9).
- Adjusting Our Attitudes: “For to me, to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21).
- Provision Of Prayer: “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray” (Jas. 5:13).
- Finding Rest: “Learn from Me ... and you will find rest for your souls” (Mt. 11:29).
- His Chastening: “Whom the Lord loves He chastens” (Heb. 12:6).
- Unselfish Service: “Through love serve one another” (Gal. 5:13).
- Happy Living” “Because I live, you will live also” (Jn. 14:19).
If you know any Christians who are not enjoying the happiness that comes from salvation by grace, from full and complete atonement for sins and from eternal security, then this 40 page booklet is for them. True to the style of E. C. Hadley’s spoken ministry, this little book speaks to the heart of the reader with the goal of changing his or her life for Christ, thereby bringing about true happiness.
Reviewed By Larry Ondrejack
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: After serving the Lord as a missionary in French Sudan, Africa (now Mali Republic), in 1931 E. C. Hadley began Grace & Truth Publishing in order to provide gospel tracts for those in the developing nations interested in literature distribution. Three years later, he began publishing Grace & Truth Magazine and a series of booklets (such as this one) as follow-up discipleship tools for new believers and those desiring to grow in God’s Word.
“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy
may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.”
— John 15:11 NKJV