The Problem With Destination Thinking…I Will Be Happier When…
Are you ever tempted to think, I’ll be happier when…
- I’ll be happier when my kids are a few years older.
- I’ll be happier when I get out of debt.
- I’ll be happier when I have a new car.
- I’ll be happier when I can finally go on a vacation.
- I’ll be happier when my job changes, husband changes, or insert your deepest longing and desire.
This type of thinking will make you…UNHAPPY! Because even when you get that thing that you think will make you really happy – you will start to long for the next thing. It’s only natural.
If you’ve studied the book of Ecclesiastes with me – then you saw this in Solomon’s life. He tried everything this world had to offer – money, knowledge, power, working hard, pleasure, food, drink, and multiple wives and none of it satisfied his soul.
Nothing can satisfy us like the Lord and yet…even though we know that in our heads – our hearts are tempted to long for more. We try to get peace, rest, joy and satisfaction from the things this world offers and are left without peace, without rest, without joy and without satisfaction.
In 2 Chronicles 25, there was a King named Amaziah, who struggled with this very issue. He is not very well known – but God included his story in his word for a reason. There is a life lesson here for us today.
Let’s take a look together at the mistakes of King Amaziah.
- King Amaziah was 25 years old when he became king and he reigned for 29 years.
Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 25:1
2. We are told King Amaziah was right in the eyes of the Lord yet…look at his issue in the verse below…God did not have his WHOLE heart.
And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not with a whole heart.
2 Chronicles 25:2
3. God gave Amaziah victory in battle.
But Amaziah took courage and led out his people and went to the Valley of Salt and struck down 10,000 men of Seir.
2 Chronicles 25:11
4. And then Amaziah did something tragic!
After Amaziah came from striking down the Edomites, he brought the gods of the men of Seir and set them up as his gods and worshiped them, making offerings to them.
2 Chronicles 24:14
After Amaziah — with the help of God almighty — defeated his enemies, look what he did!!! Amaziah took the gods of his enemies and set them up as his gods and worshipped them!
And this is why no one knows who Amaziah is to this day!
I mean – my mind cannot even comprehend what Amaziah could have possibly been thinking! Why would he do something so outrageous?
And yet I wonder…are we perhaps a little like Amaziah ourselves with our destination thinking?
We think I’ll be happier when… and then God gives us that thing and we make it our god!
- I’ll be happier when my kids are a few years older.
Then, our kids are older and we make them our idols. Our joy or lack there of is based on how they perform or how we look as a mom.
- I’ll be happier when I get out of debt.
Then, with the help of God, we get out of debt and money becomes our idol. It’s constantly on our minds. We are at peace or anxious based on how much money is in our bank account rather than trusting in God.
- I’ll be happier when I have a new car.
Then, we get the new car and our car becomes an idol. Our identity is caught up in that car or worse – we wreck the new car and we are crushed.
- I’ll be happier when I can finally go on a vacation.
Then, God makes a way for us to go on vacation and leading up to the vacation it’s our sole focus as we plan and dream and foresee all our happiness to be in that vacation. Then we go on the vacation and we get home and say…we need a vacation from our vacation or we begin to plan the next vacation!
- I’ll be happier when my job changes, husband changes, or insert your deepest longing and desire.
Then, we get the new job and our job becomes an idol. We bow down to the idol of working hard, the money or status it brings or we make a new goal of moving up the ladder. Then God and family and everything else becomes second place in our lives. Or it wasn’t what we thought – we dislike what we have to do in that job or the people we have to work with are no fun – and we long for a new job.
Friends – children are a blessing from the Lord, money is a blessing from the Lord, possessions, vacations, and jobs are a blessing from the Lord!
But they are not meant to take the place of God in our lives.
And NO we will not be happier at the next stage of life with those mini-gods.
Our kids will fail us, our money will get spent, our cars will get old, our vacations will end and we will retire from our job…and then what…
Destination thinking is a dead end road.
Amaziah’s decision to exchange the God he served, who gave him the gift of victory, for the idols that came FROM the victory – failed him. God allowed everything to be taken from Amaziah because he did not honor God with his WHOLE heart.
20 But Amaziah would not listen, for it was of God, in order that he might give them into the hand of their enemies, because they had sought the gods of Edom.
2 Chronicles 25:20
No matter what you have or do not have – give all of your heart to the Lord today.
Let nothing God gives you – become an idol.
Let nothing this world offers stand between you and your relationship with God.
He loves you so much!
Keep walking with the King,
Courtney
The 2 Chronicles Journal is still available
on Amazon!
If you’d like to purchase a printable-digital copy
(so you have it right away) at half the price
click the Buy Now Button below.
This really hit home! Thank you!
My job was once the most important thing to me before god and my family.my daughter told me that she thought my stroke was a good thing in a way because it made me relook at my priorities since I couldn’t go back to work at my job