The Truth about Happiness
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· 4 viewsYour (our) happiness isn't or should be the main goal in life, but often times it is. This is the persuit portrayed to us by many or even most of the characters in the stories told to adults and children. As long as it makes you happy, go for it. YOLO, or whatever the new modern day equivalent is for that. But this is only evidence of the heart of the individual. If we seek to live life for our own gratification outside of God's, we aren't living for God at all.
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Happiness
Happiness
We often default in our beliefs that God’s will is for me to be happy. But one of the biggest problems with this false beliefs IF TRUE would lead one to also have to say
If God wants me happy and I’m not, then God failed.
Relativism - assumption that there is no such thing as absolute truth.
Subjectivism - I, the subject, have the right to determine what is right and wrong without submitting my judgment to any authority outside myself.
12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, But the end thereof are the ways of death.
Without an absolute truth, truth will be defined by what makes me happy.
When my aim becomes my happiness, happiness becomes the standard by which I judge my actions.
133 Order my steps in thy word: And let not any iniquity have dominion over me.
134 Deliver me from the oppression of man: So will I keep thy precepts.
135 Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; And teach me thy statutes.
136 Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, Because they keep not thy law.
137 TZADDI. Righteous art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy judgments.
We would do well to remember that our steps are judged by comparing how they were lived in our will or His will. We are deserving of judgment when we live by our own steps that step out from His will. But we don’t want to step in this life the way He wills, we want to say NO, this is not your life, its my life, because I’m persuing my temporary happiness over your will.
This does not mean that His will for our life will not include happiness, because both are not always opposed, BUT, there are times in life, seasons, some long, some short, where it would be unhealthy, not for our good to be “happy.” Like when someone dies, or when we realize our sin, or when we fail, or someone hurts us, etc. etc..
Another LIE we believe or that many believe is..
Whatever makes me happy must be right.
Bible study - Joseph - was he happy when his brothers sold him into slavery? When he was falsely accused of sexual assault? When he was put in jail? When he was forgotten in prison?
QUESTION - If God Himself isn’t always happy, why would we think we deserve to be happy all the time? Has our sin made Him happy? No, definitely not.
The opposite thought process is held by many.
Since God wants me happy, anything that doesn’t make me happy must be bad.
If this is what you believe, then …
Discomfort, delayed gratification, risk, suffering, inconvenience, and obstacles can’t be God’s will.
If happiness is our main pursuit, we will begin to worship the false gods of comfort, money, pleasure, and things.
GOD DOESN’T WANT YOU HAPPY WHEN...
It causes you to do something(s)
wrong
unwise
sinful
stupid
15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of happiness, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
WRONG!!!
Colossians 3:17 (KJV 1900)
17 And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
ALSO, God DOESN’T want you happy when its only based on things in this world.
Better possessions + peaceful circumstances + thrilling experiences + the right relationships + the perfect appearance = happiness.
15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
God wants to
Blessed is the one who’s world is centered on, relies on, hopes on, lives for, driven by, the LORD.
1 Praise ye the Lord. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, That delighteth greatly in his commandments.
12 Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous; And give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.
Rejoice = verb - feel or show great joy.
Do you worship at the alter of the Lord, or of happiness?
Paul and contentment.
11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Some of you are tempted to forsake all things in life in order to persue this idea of perfect and eternal happiness. This is not what God promises for us while we are here on this earth, nor is happiness a substitute for God. It is a counterfeit lie of the enemy that many have adopted, both believer and non-believer, to pursue whatever makes us “happy.”
Who do you worship?
Because if your aim is only happiness or primarily happiness, really what you are doing is you are worshipping yourself. You have made yourself king of your own life, justifying doing so because of a fleeting, temporary feeling. Like an addict…?