What Makes You HappySample

Sow and Grow

Have you ever been your own worst enemy? 

Maybe you were trying to lose weight, but you kept sneaking candy. Maybe you were trying to get to work on time, but you hit the snooze button instead. Maybe you haven’t admitted it about yourself, but you’ve thought it about someone else. She’ll never get out of debt if she keeps spending like that. She is her own worst enemy!

We all have the capacity to be our own worst enemy—to undermine what we ultimately want because of what we immediately want. And a big part of the reason is our confusion around two words: “pleasure” and “happiness.” 

Pleasure makes us feel good in the short term. Happiness takes longer. According to Jesus, it has to be sown and grown. But because most of us are impatient (especially when we’re unhappy), we often opt for the quick fix of pleasure. We binge, shop, scroll, go out, or stay in—whatever will make us feel better as soon as possible. 

This tension isn’t new. Paul wrote to Christians in Rome about the same struggle. Today’s passage is his pep talk to convince his audience to choose happiness because, as he reminds them, pleasure has diminishing returns. Over time, even a pleasure that starts as an innocent pastime can become a prison. We scroll social media because it’s been a bad day and we want to zone out. But eventually, we’re ignoring our loved ones in favor of a quick fix from our phones.

Opting for pleasure will undercut our chances of being happy. And we may not notice what we’ve done until it’s too late—until we’ve wrecked our careers or ruined a relationship or permanently affected our health.

So, let’s make the hard choice to sow and grow—to pick the ultimate over the immediate. What are you doing (or not doing) today that may be undermining your chances to be happy in the future? You can avoid being your own worst enemy if you take action now.

If you’ve enjoyed this plan, watch Andy Stanley’s six video messages called What Makes You Happy—plus dozens of other Bible study videos—at https://www.anthology.study.