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New Morning Mercies
| Format: | Paperback |
| Page Count: | 64 |
| Size: | 4.5 in x 6.5 in |
| Weight: | 5.0 ounces |
| ISBN-13: | 979-8-8749-0820-1 |
| ISBN-UPC: | 9798874908201 |
| Published: | June 23, 2026 |
A Concise Look at Happiness from a Christian Perspective
Happiness feels more elusive than ever. With an endless stream of self-help books and motivational content available at our fingertips, we’re encouraged to look inward for the answers. But all too often, this relentless focus on ourselves only leaves us feeling emptier than when we started. Why does happiness feel so hard to grasp?
In this brief booklet, Jen Oshman examines the history, sociology, and data of happiness from a Christian perspective. She discusses our culture’s competing visions and definitions of happiness, investigates why happiness is so elusive, and offers practical alternatives to the unsatisfactory lies of the world. This booklet invites readers to explore happiness as an outcome of a relationship with our Creator, Jesus Christ. In him there is a treasure waiting to be discovered—a richer, fuller way to live.
- Countercultural: Provides life-giving and practical alternatives to the unsatisfactory lies the world tells us about how to gain happiness
- Christian Perspective: Helps both believers and non-believers understand happiness as a byproduct of their relationship with Jesus Christ
- Short, Accessible Format: A concise biblical exploration of the history, sociology, and data of happiness
- Part of the TGC Hard Questions Series: Equips readers with answers to difficult questions facing today’s church
Author:
Jen Oshman is an author, speaker, church planter’s wife, and mom of four teen and young adult daughters. She has served as a missionary and church planter for over two decades on three continents. She currently resides in Colorado, where she is the director of women’s ministry at Redemption Parker, which her family planted 9 years ago. You can keep in touch with Jen at jenoshman.com.
Product Details
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part 1: What Even Is Happiness?
Part 2: Why Is Happiness So Hard to Hold On To?
Part 3: Happiness for the Long Haul
Recommended Resources
Endorsements
“This book speaks with honesty and clarity to our restless pursuit of happiness. Compassionate and anchored in truth, it helps readers examine misplaced hopes and offers a vision of joy sturdy enough to endure suffering, disappointment, and the weight of everyday life.”
Darby Strickland, CCEF Faculty; author, Is It Abuse?
“Jen paints a bull’s-eye around one’s happiness in God, which is the only bull’s-eye that will bring fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. An important matter is her comparison of seven habits recommended by psychologists and, later, the biblical foundations, source, and telos for those habits. She thus notes parallel behaviors but pivotal differences between biblical teaching and psychology generally. This is what true science always does—confirm what God has been telling us all along. I’m glad Jen writes, and reading her work prompts me to double down on my joy in the happy God who is blessed forever. Amen!”
Sam Crabtree, Pastor for Small Groups, Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota; author, Practicing Affirmation
“Our quest to soothe our unhappiness sends us in a thousand different directions that ultimately disappoint. In this short book, Jen Oshman helps us see why the pursuit of happiness in and of itself will never give us what we yearn for. If we chase the offerings of this life to grab hold of happiness, our hearts will always be empty. But if we spend our lives running after Jesus, joy will never let us go.”
Glenna Marshall, author, Everyday Faithfulness; Memorizing Scripture; and Known and Loved