{"id":1978,"date":"2015-03-20T10:47:58","date_gmt":"2015-03-20T14:47:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/?p=1978"},"modified":"2015-03-20T10:47:58","modified_gmt":"2015-03-20T14:47:58","slug":"i-found-my-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2015\/03\/i-found-my-happiness.html","title":{"rendered":"I Found My Happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em><strong>Make me walk along the path of your commands, for that is where my happiness is found. Psalm 119:35<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">My favorite part of the\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">The Hobbit<\/span> is when Gandalf urges the dwarves and Bilbo to\u00a0<em>stay on the path.\u00a0<\/em>He warns them that the there will come a time when circumstances will wrangle\u00a0you to abandon the right road\u00a0and follow a different way; he cautions them that this will lead to disaster. They do, and it does.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">God has provided a path to happiness in our lives. That doesn&#8217;t mean we will be\u00a0trouble\u00a0or\u00a0challenge-free, but it does mean that we will have a sustaining joy that will get us through those deep valleys and see us safely through to the other side. If you&#8217;ve lost your happiness, your hope, and your passion for life, then pray.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em><strong>Father,<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em><strong>The path I find myself on is not the path I started out on. Somehow, the bells and whistles of my enemy lured me here where I am out of sync with You, Your Word, Your people, and my true self. I repent of being duped by the enemy, of allowing myself to believe his lies, to take his bait, and to turn from the One who knows and loves me. Remove me from this downward path, this slow decline, and put my feet on solid ground. And even when the going gets rough, I&#8217;ll not leave your path. I&#8217;ll stay with you, trusting you to lead me to the places you have ordained me to go, with Your help.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em><strong>In Jesus&#8217; Name, Amen<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">&#8220;The safest road to Hell is the gradual one\u2014the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8211; C.S. Lewis, <i>The Screwtape Letters<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Make me walk along the path of your commands, for that is where my happiness is found. Psalm 119:35 My favorite part of the\u00a0The Hobbit is when Gandalf urges the dwarves and Bilbo to\u00a0stay on the path.\u00a0He warns them that the there will come a time when circumstances will wrangle\u00a0you to abandon the right road\u00a0and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":478,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,14,15,7,4,25,3,1],"tags":[818,998,754,207,208,996,999,647,1000],"class_list":["post-1978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-21-ways-to-pray","category-bible","category-bible-prayer","category-daily-prayer","category-god","category-jesus","category-prayer","category-uncategorized","tag-gods-plan","tag-j-r-r-tolkien","tag-path","tag-repent","tag-repentance-2","tag-the-enemy","tag-the-hobbit","tag-the-word","tag-warning"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>I Found My Happiness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2015\/03\/i-found-my-happiness.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I Found My Happiness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Make me walk along the path of your commands, for that is where my happiness is found. Psalm 119:35 My favorite part of the\u00a0The Hobbit is when Gandalf urges the dwarves and Bilbo to\u00a0stay on the path.\u00a0He warns them that the there will come a time when circumstances will wrangle\u00a0you to abandon the right road\u00a0and&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2015\/03\/i-found-my-happiness.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prayer, Plain and Simple\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-20T14:47:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark and Jill Herringshaw\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"I Found My Happiness","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2015\/03\/i-found-my-happiness.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"I Found My Happiness","og_description":"Make me walk along the path of your commands, for that is where my happiness is found. 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