Does God Want Me to Be Happy?

"Well, I know this might not be the right choice for you, but it will make me happy, and God wants me to be happy."
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Have you heard that one? It usually follows some revelation of impending compromise and is used as justification for sin.

So does God want us to be happy?

Or is that a human assumption based on our own wants. Is it one more attempt to create a god in our own image?

Happiness is a lot like cotton candy--looks great from a distance and tastes delicious for a few minutes, but it evaporates with the first bite and leaves us as empty as before. Happiness is relative, usually a direct response to positive circumstances. And we all know that positive circumstances are as changing as the breeze.

So is that all God wants for us? Just happiness? Fleeting, changeable happiness?

You'll find theory that nowhere in the Bible.

Joy is promised. Blessing is promised. Peace that passes all human understanding is promised. But not happiness.

God's desire for each of us goes far past that. He wants us to be like Him. 

Holy.

Because He knows that happiness is a byproduct of being right with Him.

We'll be happy without trying. God's goal for each of us on this earthly pilgrimage is to conform us to the image of His Son. 

Would you say that Jesus was happy?

Not when he was throwing the creeps out of the temple. Not when the town fathers were ready to stone him. And certainly not on the night before he faced crucifixion.

So is it accurate to say that God wants you to be happy when He didn't provide that for his own Son?

As long as you seek your own happiness, it will continually elude you. Oh, you'll have moments. Maybe days or weeks, but you'll constantly have to keep supplying it, like a drug. Keep infusing yourself with the circumstances that provide that fleeting feeling we call happiness or it will evaporate like a fog, leaving you as desolate as before.

But God has already thought of that. "Seek first God's Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you." (Matt. 6:33)

Yes God wants you to be happy, but only when He gives it. His kind will never involve compromise, sin, or exclude Him. It also lasts a lot longer than cotton candy.

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