Your Open Word e-Devotional for July 21st

Published: Thu, 07/21/16

Hello ,

Does money really buy happiness? Studies by a generation of behavioral scientists show that material goods usually don't deliver lasting happiness. But there is one way that money can buy happiness-when you spend money with and for others. Researchers call this phenomenon a "buying experience." Think of treating someone to a special meal, a sports game, or a concert. Dozens of studies show that these buying experiences bring us closer to other people and bring us more happiness than spending money on ourselves.

Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton, a pair of researchers who authored the book Happy Money, reported on the following experiment:

We handed out gift cards on a university campus .... [and] told some people to head to the store and buy something for themselves. We told others to pass their gift card along to someone else. And we told a third group of people to use the gift card to buy something for someone else-with the additional requirement that they actually hang out with that person afterwards.

Dunn and Norton concluded, "Who was happiest? Those who treated someone else and shared in that experience with them.*

"I have showed you all things, how that so laboring you ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive." Acts 20:35

Apparently, God knows EXACTLY what helps people to be happy...and it's by giving unselfishly to someone else. And now we have the research to prove what the Bible has been saying all along.

Have a great day and God bless!

Pastor Mike / The Open Word

* Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Horton, "How to Buy Happiness," Los Angeles Times (5-19-13)