Sessions Include:

The Secret of Happiness, Lesson #1
The Search for Happiness

The Secret of Happiness, Lesson #2
Happiness Through Poverty

The Secret of Happiness, Lesson #3
Happiness While Mourning

The Secret of Happiness, Lesson #4
Happiness Through Weakness

The Secret of Happiness, Lesson #5
Happy Though Hungry

The Secret of Happiness, Lesson #6
Happiness Through Showing Mercy

The Secret of Happiness, Lesson #7
Happiness in Purity

The Secret of Happiness, Lesson #8
Happiness Through Peacemaking

The Secret of Happiness, Lesson #9
Happiness in Spite of Persecution

The Secret of Happiness, Lesson #10
Steps to Happiness

THE BIBLE SAYS, “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay him again” (Proverbs 19:17). A group of businessmen had a hunting lodge. It was their custom to have devotions each evening. One night they called on the godly mountain caretaker to lead in prayer. “O Lord,” he prayed, “have mercy on us, ’cause mercy suits our case.” In the Bible mercy refers to compassion, to pity for the undeserving and the guilty. Perhaps no more beautiful illustration of it exists in the Bible (apart from God’s mercy to us in Christ) than that of Joseph and his undeserving brothers.

You recall how, through jealousy, the brothers sold Joseph into slavery, convincing his father that he had been devoured by wild beasts. In the following years Joseph, through his faithfulness to God and his masters, rose in position in Egypt until he was second in power to Pharaoh himself.

It was famine that drove the unsuspecting brothers down to Egypt to buy food. Read again the incredible story of Joseph recognizing his brothers, his compassionate dealing with them, how he got them to bring his old father and move with their families to Egypt where he could nourish them through the remaining years of famine. Where vengeance and just retribution were certainly justified, Joseph showed only mercy and lovingkindness.

In fact, he says to his apprehensive brothers (in Genesis 50), “. . . ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good. . . . Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them” (vv. 20–21).

What mercy!

So, too, in our lives, we might be prompted to be merciful to those who have wronged us, hurt us, or even done incredibly cruel things to us. If we were submissive and loyal to God we could see behind the unkindness and evil God’s love working for our good and His glory.

We have a contrasting story in the rich young ruler who, when told by Jesus to go and sell all he had and give to the poor, then come and follow Him, went away sorrowful for he had great possessions (Matthew 19:22). Here an opportunity to show mercy was held back by greed.

The rich young ruler thought possessions would bring him happiness—but they didn’t. And yet he was unwilling to turn to Christ, the only true source of lasting happiness. He could not show mercy to others because of his selfishness and greed—and so he “went away sorrowful,” never experiencing true happiness and fulfillment. “Happy are the merciful.”

Jesus knew that one of the real tests of our yieldedness to God is our willingness to share with others. If we have no mercy toward others, that is one proof that we have never experienced God’s mercy.

Billy Graham, The Secret of Happiness (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2011).

We have just released a new Bible study on: The Secret of Happiness

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