CE 1 YEAR: 7 Your Happiness

Week 7

Your Happiness

Your Father wants you to be happy

What should be a primary motive for following Christ? If you asked Christians that question they would probably list things like loving, pleasing, and glorifying God. The one reply you probably would not get is this: One reason God wants us to obey Him is to increase our happiness. In fact, God wants His people to be the happiest people in the world.

Happiness is a repeated subject in Scripture. Unfortunately, this is hidden in modern translations because the original Hebrew and Greek words for happiness are usually rendered as “rejoice” or “blessed.” To “rejoice” suggests to many the act of praising or giving thanks. But the Hebrew and Greek words (gil, chairō) actually mean to be very happy. Likewise, most people think “blessed” means something like “fortunate.” But the words in the original languages (asher, makarios) mean to be very happy because we are fortunate. These meanings will be reflected in the verses referenced below.

If you will read “be happy” when you see the words “rejoice” or “blessed” in the OT and NT, you will begin to get an idea of how much happiness there is in God’s word. For example, the very first topic of Jesus’ first recorded sermon was happiness (Matt 5:3-12). In fact, in the first 45 seconds of His sermon, Jesus repeated the word or idea of being happy 11 times.

Some Christians try to distinguish between joy and happiness because the latter can seem selfish or worldly. But the joy of God and His Spirit is nothing more, and nothing less, than feeling happy. Think of the happiest moments of your life and that is what biblical joy is. Which is why joy is defined as “a pleasurable or satisfying experience; a state of well-being.” Joy is happiness.

Some believe there is something wrong with Christians pursuing happiness. It is said you should pursue holiness, sacrifice, and God’s glory instead. But God repeatedly commands you to be happy (Rom 12:12; 14:17-18; Phil 3:1; 4:4; 1 Thess 5:16). God commanded all Christians through the Apostle Paul: “Always be happy in the Lord.” And in case we didn’t get it, he wrote, “I will say it again, be happy!” (Phil 4:4).

Christian, just as seriously as God commands you to be holy, He commands you to be happy. This is because real holiness makes you happy.

Why your Father wants you to be happy

Why does God want you to be happy? First of all, because your Father loves you. If you have children how much do you want them to be happy? Do you think you desire this for your children more than God desires it for His children? (Matt 7:9-11). Like any good Father, God wants you to be happy.

Secondly, happy Christians glorify God. Do you think unhappy and miserable Christians glorify God? The happiest Christians are the most God-glorifying Christians. Who has more reasons to be happy than Christians? If we fully appreciated all we have been given, why wouldn’t we be happy?

Unfortunately, the perception of many non-Christians is that Christianity is not a religion of joy, but of duty and dullness. That is not what God wants. We need to show the world the love of God’s Spirit in us. But we also need to show them the joy of God’s Spirit if we are to prove to them that we have a relationship with the true God.

Thirdly, feeling happy is the only way you can know God’s Spirit is controlling you. God’s Spirit always produces joy (Rom 14:18; Gal 5:22). God’s Spirit is called the Holy Spirit. But it is just as important and biblical to refer to Him as the Happy Spirit if we want to understand who He is and what He does. In fact, if you are not feeling the Spirit’s joy, your sinful nature is probably in charge (Gal 5:17). That may be shocking to you and it may reveal how infrequently God’s Spirit is controlling you. But you cannot ignore the biblical fact that joy is always a result of God’s Spirit controlling you.

This unfortunately exposes a lot of Christianity as being rather powerless because it is joyless. Far too many Christians are pursuing the Christian life in their own will power motivated by a sense of duty instead of delight. Likewise, they are often experiencing the powers of their sinful nature like anger, worry, and depression. This is not why God put His Spirit in you.

There is no such thing as true holiness without happiness. You can have an outward, guilt-driven holiness like the Pharisees. But a true holiness from the Holy Spirit in you will make you happy. As pointed out in the previous chapter, being righteous without “joy in the Spirit” does not please God (Rom 14:17-18). If you often feel frustrated, discouraged, and depressed, then God has more for you. He created you and indwelled you to be happy.

There is an unfortunate belief in Christianity that you can do things with God’s love but without God’s joy. Some have deceived themselves into thinking that if something feels sacrificial, it must be love. But the Holy Spirit is a united Person, not a divided power. If you are being controlled by the Spirit’s love, then you will feel His joy. Always.

Fourth, your happiness is an accurate measure of your Christian maturity. The biblical measure of spiritual maturity and power is how often God’s Spirit controls you. And the best measure of that is how often you feel His joy.

Fifth, God wants you to experience joy in all you do so you know your motives are right. Only those controlled by God’s Spirit can be certain of this. And because God’s Spirit always produces joy, it is your guarantee that you are truly doing things for God.

Finally, God wants you to be happy because it makes Him happy. Your Father does not enjoy miserable, grumbling, discouraged Christians. He loves and accepts them and has compassion on them. But because He loves them, He wants them to be happy.

Some might object that God allowed Satan to take away everything good in Job’s life. As explained in the next chapter, God had a reason for that. But remember what God did after Job’s testing. He gave him double the possessions he had before. He again gave him seven sons and three daughters. God blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first part. And the latter part of Job’s life lasted another 140 years (Job 42:10-16). All of this was because God wanted to restore Job’s happiness.

How your Father helps you to be happy

What has God done to help you be happy? Of course, God blesses us abundantly in all sorts of ways to help us be happy. This will be discussed more under the topic of faith in week 9. There is something else God has done to help you be happy and it may surprise you. God created you with a constant and controlling desire to be happy. He created you to pursue and be controlled by your greatest desires. And it would be hard to argue that there is anything you desire more than to be happy.

Contrary to what some think, this is not sinful. Your desire to be happy is part of God’s own image in you. As described in the previous chapter, God desires to be happy. This is why His ultimate plan is a New Creation where there will be no more death, sorrow or pain (Rev 21:4). Happiness is the ultimate goal of God’s heart! Which is why it is the ultimate desire in your heart.

God created you so that everything you do, every decision you make, is ultimately motivated to make you happy. The Christian philosopher Blaise Pascal rightly wrote:

All men seek happiness. This is without exception. The will never takes the least step except to obtain it. Happiness is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.

Of course, there are two sources of happiness: the world or God. The world can give people a temporary happiness through its sinful pleasures (Heb 11:25; 1 John 2:15-17). But there is always something incomplete about the world’s pleasures and they always leave you feeling dissatisfied and/or guilty.

Unfortunately, your desire to be happy is the ultimate reason you sin. You become convinced that disobeying God will give you the most pleasure, significance, acceptance, or security. You disobey God to be happy. This temptation does not make happiness something automatically sinful. The pursuit of happiness becomes sinful and idolatrous when we seek it in worldly ways.

God wants you to pursue your God-given desire for happiness through Him. When He makes you happy, it is full, complete, and guilt-free. God’s happiness comes through experiencing God’s blessings, believing God’s promises, and obeying God’s commands. All of which leads us to experience God’s Spirit whose power is joy (Gal 5:22).

This is why Paul commanded us to be happy “in the Lord” (Phil 4:4). True and lasting happiness cannot be found anywhere else. King David said if we seek our happiness from the Lord, then He will give us the desires of our heart, which is to be happy (Ps 37:4)! Or as David promised elsewhere, God will satisfy your desire for happiness with good things, not sinful and disappointing things (Ps 103:5).

Because God created you with a fervent desire to be happy, Jesus told you how to get it. He told us to obey His commandments so that His joy would be in us, we would be full of joy, and our joy would be made complete (John 15:10-11; Luke 11:27). But notice in the passage that Jesus said you cannot do this apart from Him (v. 5). You can do all kinds of Christian looking things without the Spirit’s power. But you cannot obey Christ’s commands with joy in your own power.

The Psalms speak a great deal about our happiness. They begin by saying we will be truly happy if we reject the advice of the wicked and delight in studying God’s word (1:1-2). Also, if we obey God’s word (112:1; 119:1-2; 128:1-2), and if we trust and hope in God (40:4; 146:5).

Obviously then we are not talking about seeking happiness through selfishness. Jesus said you will be more happy if you give instead of get (Acts 20:35). Those who sacrificially serve Christ with the love and joy of God’s Spirit will tell you it was no sacrifice at all.

And finally, giving you His power is another thing God did to help you be happy. His Spirit in you is a joyful Person. If He controls you, then you will be happy too. How can you experience God’s Spirit more consistently controlling you? The Essentials will address that in the section on Christian Power. Some may also wonder how we can obey God’s commands to always be happy (Rom 12:12; 14:17-18; Phil 3:1; 4:4; 1 Thess 5:16), even though there are times to be sad. You will read about the ability of the Spirit’s joy to be mixed with sadness in Week 24.

Practical Application: Take some time to thank God that His will for your life is to always be happy in Him. Honestly evaluate how often you feel happy. Ask Him to help you be happier. Not only in your circumstances, but because of God’s never-ending love for you.

In your small group meeting this week, share praises and prayer requests and then discuss these questions:

1) What do the words “rejoice” and “blessed” mean in the Bible?

2) Where does Scripture command you to always be happy?

3) Why does God want you to be happy?

4) Why is happiness a good way to know if you are being controlled by God’s Spirit?

5) Why is it important and biblical to refer to God’s Spirit as the Happy Spirit, not just the Holy Spirit?

6) Why is happiness a good measure of your Christian maturity?

7) What has God done to help you be happy?

8) What is the root cause of our sin?

9) What was most meaningful to you in this chapter? Why?