Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Easy Road to Happiness | Historical Books | 1 Samuel 2:22-36

Episode Date: April 1, 2025

What are you doing to give one person true happiness? Where does spiritual growth start? How can we be happier? In today's episode, Tanya looks at 1 Samuel 2:22-36, reminding us that true happiness comes from praising God. If you're listening on Spotify, comment below one takeaway from today's episode! Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Samuel 2:22-36

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. I think it's so interesting to steady people and what makes them happy. I'll just tell you a few of the things that make me just surface-level happy. One of them is seeing my golden retriever boon run down the driveway, and his little booty come up higher than his head because he's so excited to be outside. Another one is really melty, fresh mozzarella.

on a pizza and also seeing my kids walk through the front door so that we can have dinner together. Those are just off the surface things that make me really, really happy. But on a deeper level, I wonder what truly makes you happy? What truly makes people happy? According to a Harvard study of adult development, one of the greatest predictors of happiness is close relationships, followed by something very closely related, meaningful engagement. So in other words, Harvard says that living among others and living for others is what truly

makes us happy. Pablo Picasso would echo this. He once said, the meaning of life is to find your gift, but the purpose of life is to give it away. If we believe that we're truly happy when we find our purpose in life, then we can agree with Picasso. that using our lives to impact others will bring us great joy. So my husband Eric meets with a group of guys on Thursday mornings, and I truly have no idea what happens there.

Sometimes I see him frantically writing in his Bible study notebook the night before, but other than that, it's a mystery like a modern day sandlot. But I can tell you whatever happens there is encouraging, challenging, and meaningful because he gets out of bed and does it every week. So this week, he brought up something that had been, a topic of conversation. Of course, I was all ears. And he said that they talked about this question, what are you doing for one person to show them Jesus? And I think we could mirror that question and say, what are you doing for one person to bring them into true heart level happiness? Because we know

that comes from a relationship with Jesus. That got me thinking, what would happen if each of us intentionally poured into just one person? What if we committed to meeting one person for a weekly coffee, going on a walk during lunch breaks, reading through a gospel of the Bible together? How would that change their life? And in turn, how would it change ours? This idea of investing in people spiritually is deeply reflected in a lesson from first Samuel. Take the priest Eli. He raised his two sons inside the temple. And this was the very place where God's presence dwelt. These sons were set apart for priestly service. They were actually growing up immersed in sacred rituals and traditions. Yet despite this, Eli somehow failed to instill in them a true reverence for God, like a heart-level,

love and surrender to God. And so instead of pursuing the Lord, his sons pursued their own desires. They abused their positions and indulged their appetites at the expense of the sacrifices in the tabernacle. Now, what's shocking is that Eli's sons grew up in the very place where God's presence dwelt. They were surrounded by the sacred and beautiful things of the Lord. They were immersed in worship. They were given the opportunity to serve. And yet they missed the beauty of the Holy Lord. How did that happen?

Well, I think one of the hints that we're supposed to get, as we're reading through this chapter is about complacency. They became so familiar with the motions of worship that they forgot the purpose behind them. They took for granted what God was doing. Instead of seeing the temple as a place of holiness and repentance and intimacy with God, they saw it as a means for gain.

They took the best portions of the sacrifices. They seduced women at the temple entrance. They disregarded the way. weight of what God had called them to do. Now, Eli knew what they were doing, but instead of confronting them, he chose complacency. He feared losing his relationship with his sons more than he feared them, not having a true relationship with the Holy Lord. And because Eli refused to act, God sent a messenger saying, you have honored your sons above me. That's a big statement and a powerful reminder that when we prioritize temporary happiness, our own or others, above true obedience, worship, and service to God,

we risk growing complacent in our faith. Now, in contrast to Eli and his sons, there's another man, another boy growing up with a temple named Samuel. And 1 Samuel 2.26 tells us, now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and also with man. Unlike Eli's sons, who were using their positions for selfish gain, Samuel was remaining faithful. He was growing under the Lord's guidance. While Eli's sons were consumed with indulgence and disregard for holiness, Samuel was in God's presence and he was responding with obedience. The contrast reminds us that true growth come not from proximity to religious things, but from a heart that seeks after God. That means it is possible to go to

church and serve in church and even raise our kids in church without truly bringing them into the beauty of our savior, maybe even knowing it for ourselves. So what are we putting our hope in? What are we teaching our kids to put their hope in? If it's in achievements and success, then maybe we're measuring our worth or their worth by what's accomplished. If it's in the next phase of life, then we're believing that a certain milestone like graduation, marriage, retirement will finally let us be fulfilled and happy. If it's recognition and validation, then we're chasing approval from others, and we're assuming that what they tell us about themselves will satisfy what our heart needs. If it's complete freedom, then we think that having the ability to do whatever we want,

wherever we want, is actually what's going to make us feel happy. None of these things are inherently wrong, but when we make them our ultimate goal, we will come up empty, right? I mean, these desires, they can offer temporary satisfaction, but they will not provide the lasting peace and purpose and fulfillment that only King Jesus can give. So how do we fight a me-centered approach to life? How do we guard against a consumer mindset toward our faith? Well, the answer is true worship. true worship realigns our perspective. True worship shifts our focus from ourselves to our savior, and it reminds us of our dependence on him. Now, you might be saying, though, like, what is true

worship? What do you even mean by that? So let me share a little story from my small group. They were talking about self-image, and this idea of mirror talk came up, and this is the concept of looking in the mirror and affirming yourself with positive words. So saying things, like, I am beautiful, I am worthy, I am worthy of love. So we were talking about this and I just asked, like, where in the Bible do we see people looking in the mirror or telling themselves affirmations and then filling happy and fulfilled? I can't really think of a place, right? But instead, we do see people like David in the Psalms, telling God how insecure they feel, how scared they are, how insignificant they feel.

And then being reminded of how significant God is, how powerful God is, how loving God is, how beautiful God is. What if we centered our focus on the goodness of God rather than thinking so much about our own self-worth? What if we trusted that serving God would bring us greater fulfillment than doing what we feel like doing. Happiness is not found in achievements, relationships, or personal success. It's found in living for someone greater than ourselves. And if we're following Jesus, we know that that someone is our true king, king Jesus. So who is one person you can invest in spiritually? How can you

intentionally serve and love them? And how can you re-senter your life on true worship and obedience to God?