If happiness is your aim, you can end up at a place called Ruin.
If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times, “God wants me to be happy.”
Really? Since when? And where is that scripture found in the Bible?
I’ll admit the word “happy” is mentioned approximately 25 times in the KJV of the Bible. But it’s never mentioned as something to be pursued.
Not even one time.
True, scripture says things like, “Happy is the one whose God is the Lord”, “Happy is the one who finds wisdom”, “Happy is the person who has mercy on the poor”, and “Happy is the one who endures persecution for the gospel’s sake”.
Jesus told His disciples, “If you know these things, happy are you if you do them.”
Happiness is the RESULT of godly pursuits, not a thing to be pursued.
While I’m a patriotic kind of dude, and love our country’s Declaration of Independence, I have to take issue with the phrase, “…they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…”. I agree with the right to life and liberty, but not the right to pursue happiness.
If we seek happiness, we’ll probably settle for something far less than what God has for us. Why? Because we aren’t as smart as God, and we don’t see the complete picture like He does.
Have you ever thought, “If I only had this or that, I’d be happy.”? I have.
Marriages are attacked by the “spirit” of happiness. Along with that comes a spirit of comparison.
We all know how it works. “What I have isn’t as good as what I see over there, so if I have that (no matter what I have to do to get it) I’ll be happy. And since God wants me to be happy…”
I’ve talked with guys who have left their wives for other women because they’re convinced “God wants me to be happy.”
Sometimes people change jobs because they aren’t happy. It doesn’t matter if God is telling them to stay, waiting just a little longer for His hand to be revealed.
Other folks change churches because they aren’t happy with the pastor or leadership. “I’m just not being fed…”
More than likely, they’re not getting their own way. That’s why they aren’t happy.
Happiness IS one of the characteristics of the God loving, God following, God honoring person. They have something deep within, that regardless of how their world is treating them, they can still say “It is well”. And God calls them happy.
Happiness. A joy unspeakable that’s full of the glory of God.
However, it’s the result of a life well lived, not life’s aim.
“…Happy are the people whose God is the LORD!” (Psalm 144:15 NKJV)
Jan Grace 