“He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?”

Micah 6:8 NASB

The world tells you to do what makes you happy. The world tends to imply that it doesn’t matter how somebody else may feel, you should do whatever makes you happy. It tells us that it doesn’t matter if you made a vow with somebody on your wedding day, you deserve to be happy and if they don’t make you happy then you can leave. It tells us that if you want to get to the top of a company that it doesn’t matter who you climb over, “you gotta do what you gotta do” to get to the top. The problem with that teaching is that it teaches us that it doesn’t matter what you say or do, all that matters is our happiness and our pleasure.

The idea that we deserve to be happy is an interesting one. We know that happiness is momentary. It’s an emotion and ultimately, emotions change. You may feel a certain way one day, but the next, you could feel completely different. It's not a reliable thing to trust in your emotions because of this. God calls us to live by His commands. We are called to live according to God’s commandments for us. God's commandments don't always line up with our emotions. When we live according to God's commandments for us, we are able to follow out the verse stated at the beginning of this. If we try to mimic the world, we just have to live for ourselves, but if we choose to mimic God then we have to act differently. We have to be different.