Often in counseling I ask the question, "Given all the positive and negative forces in your life, when you put it all together, are you basically happy?" When a person says, "No," I realize that we have work to do.

I believe that Jesus Christ is at the center of personal happiness and a successful life. To live a life favorable to him is to permit God’s Spirit to exert control over our lives. And if we permit his control of our lives, then his will becomes our will. And what is Christ’s will? Jesus once said, "I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly." His will is that we have happiness and purpose in life.

I would like to suggest what I call the three P’s to developing a relationship with God. They are: People, Prayer, and Pursuit. Sort of three P’s in a pod - the pod, or encompassing factor, is God himself.

Our first P is for People. It is difficult to discover God in a vacuum. On several occasions teenagers leaving for college have told me that they didn’t plan to attend church at college. They wanted to use the time in college to make up their own minds about God. Taking such a position, they cut off one of the surest ways to experience God - being around people whose lives are God-touched. If your faith ever becomes weak, that is the time when your church attendance and your activity with other Christians need to be the most intense. God will use his people to reach out to you if you don’t avoid them.

Our second P in a good relationship with God is prayer. God is not the Tooth Fairy who has an unlimited source of extra money to solve all problems. God is not an escape artist to invoke when all else fails. A powerful prayer life must also be a consistent prayer life as we try to discover God’s will for our lives. Let me try to illustrate. If you’re in a little boat approaching a sandy beach and you throw out the anchor, and it digs into the sand, and you pull on the anchor rope until the boat slides into the sand, what have you done? Have you moved the shore to the boat, or have you moved the boat to the shore? Of course, you’ve moved the boat to the shore. The purpose of prayer, likewise, is not to move God and heaven to you, but to move you until you want what God wants.

Our third P is pursuit. To know God and his will we must pursue our Christianity as we pursue any other worthwhile endeavor. We must be disciplined as Christians, not only in weekly worship, but also in studying his Word, and in taking the opportunity to touch others with his love. We do not pursue God in order to have God on our terms, but to discover his terms and follow them to a happy and successful life.

Make a very deep commitment of your life to Jesus Christ. People, prayer, and pursuit will help you along the way in your search for happiness and success.