Personal Prayer Power Blog

I recently read a newspaper article that reported that research institutes are beginning to study happiness.  Run Veenhoven, who created the World Database of Happiness in 1999, says, “In much the same way that research of consumer unions helps you to make the best buy, happiness research can help you make the best choices.”

            Studies rate happiness not only on objective questions about how people feel, but also on other factors of well being such as education, nutrition, freedom from fear and violence, gender equality and having choices.  According to studies, people in

            One study showed that choice makes more difference than wealth in our sense of happiness.  In one study, poor women in the southern Indian state of Kerala who were able to make their own choices scored very highly on happiness versus women with strict fathers and husbands who limited their ability to choose. 

            In Session 5 of Personal Prayer Power I talk about how prayer relates to two of the three forces that shape our future:  personal choice and limiting forces (which are  things like illness and natural disaster that we can’t change or prevent, which is a whole new subject.)   In Christianity we call our God-given ability to choose “free will.”  

Until I read this study I never considered this free will or our God-given freedom of choice is truly a divine gift.  When we choose in a healthy way, it can create happiness.  More amazingly, choosing God’s good way for ourselves creates happiness not only here on earth in our own lives and in the lives of others, but joy in heaven as well.  Jesus says, “There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”  (Luke 15:7)  The word repent means to change your mind and to choose to live differently.  Joy in heaven?  How intriguing that it can begin when we simply make a small, good choice.  And God smiles.