Part 1. I imagine if I asked 100 people "what makes you happy?" I would receive answers like good job, friends, children, financial stability, being a good parent, a house. Most of the attempts to find happiness would be through external rather than internal situations.
The popular idea of happiness is this: having the right circumstances. A classic example of this is found in Ecclesiastes 2. Solomon says "I decided to enjoy myself and find out what happiness is." Solomon admits that he tried it all and found three dead ends: accumulating things, experiencing pleasure and achieving success. He was the wealthiest man, had all kinds of pleasure and was the most successful man of his time but called them dead ends.
The popular idea of happiness is having the right circumstances. But God's way to happiness is having the right attitude.
The Sermon on the Mount begins with eight positive statements about happiness, called the Beatitudes. Of all the subjects Jesus could have chosen to begin with, He chose "How to be happy" because He knew everyone was searching for true happiness but few managed to find it.
The very first step to happiness is to be humble. Matthew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven." "Poor in spirit" means to depend on God. The opposite of poor in spirit is egotism and arrogance.
To be humble is to realize you don't have all the answers, the world does not depend on you, you can handle the tension between real and ideal.
Humility accepts the fact that you can be happy because you are depending on God even though life is not ideal.
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