Do You Want To Be Happy?

Last week we talked about getting through those bad times, those sad times, and those mad times. We want to be happy, right? We want to be joyful! We want to wear a smile on our face and proclaim that we are satisfied with our lives, with our relationships, with our education, with our occupations! It is the natural human response existing.

Last week we talked about getting through those bad times, those sad times, and those mad times. We want to be happy, right? We want to be joyful! We want to wear a smile on our face and proclaim that we are satisfied with our lives, with our relationships, with our education, with our occupations! It is the natural human response existing.

Did you know that the underlying reason behind most suicides is a desire to be happy? Either the victim feels they can never be happy or those around him would be happier with him gone.

You won’t find the term “happy” or “happiness” very many times in Scripture. A mere total of 28 times in fact. Usually the term used is ʾě·šěr meaning a joyful state of mind. Mostly, happiness is talked about in the Psalms and in the Proverbs. Let’s take a look at some of the examples.

Forgiveness of Sin

—Happy is he whose transgression is taken away, whose sin is covered.

—Happy is a person to whom God does not impute iniquity [their guilt has been forgiven] and in whose spirit there is not deceit.

—Blessed are they whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins are covered over. Blessed is the person against whom the Lord will never count sin.

Reverence and Obedience

—Blessed is everyone who fears God, who walks in his ways. You will indeed eat of the labor of your hands; you will be happy and it will be well with you

—And now, children, listen to me; happy are those who will keep my [God’s] ways.

—He who walks in his integrity is righteous [God]; happy are his children who follow him.

—Happy is the person who fears [God] continuously, but he who is stubborn of heart, will fall into calamity.

Knowledge and Wisdom

—O daughter of Babylon, about to be devastated, happy shall be he who pays back to you what you paid out to us. Happy shall be he who seizes and smashes your children against the rock.

אֶשֶׁר (ʾě·šěr)

—Happy is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who obtains understanding.

אֶשֶׁר

ʾě·šěr

—Fear of God is the beginning of knowledge; wisdom and instruction, fools despise.

—When there is no prophecy, the people cast off restraint, but as for he who guards instruction, happiness is his.

Happy is ⌊the one⌋ who finds wisdom, and one who obtains understanding.

Protection and Defense

—Happy is the person who listens to me [God], in order to keep watch at my doors day by day, in order to guard the frames of my entrances.

Faith and Contentment

and one who obtains understanding.

—He who is attentive to a matter will find goodness, and he who trusts in God, his own happiness

Harris, W. H., III, Ritzema, E., Brannan, R., Mangum, D., Dunham, J., Reimer, J. A., & Wierenga, M. (Eds.). (2012). The Lexham English Bible (). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

—He who walks in his integrity is righteous [God]; happy are his children who follow him.

—Happy is the person who fears [God] continuously, but he who is stubborn of heart, will fall into calamity.

—But seek first his kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

This is not all of the times happiness is mentioned in Scripture, but it will give us some holy guidance on how and where to find happiness.

Pray

Happiness Requires Forgiveness of Sin

I noticed several things are clearly apparent when reading these Scriptures. First off, true happiness cannot be found in the presence of sin. Where there is sin there will be strife. Thus, in order to be happy, we must have our sins washed away. In , David makes this very clear. Paul echoes David’s proclamation in . There is only one way to have our transgression taken away, to have our sin covered, to be free of iniquity, and be rid of deceit in our spirit. Is is through the blood of Christ. He died so we wouldn’t have to. He became sin, our sin, and conquered it. It is by His blood, applied to us in baptism, we are freed from the chains of sin.

Do you want to be happy? Have you had your sins washed away in the waters of baptism?

Do you want to be happy? Have you had your sins washed away in the waters of baptism?

Happiness Requires Reverence and Obedience

says “Blessed is everyone who fears God, who walks in his ways.” The fear we are to have for God is the same fear the subjects have for their king. It is grounded in reverence and respect for the authority he holds; awe of his power; and fear or his wrath in disobedience. The fear is not that of a kid being harassed by a bully at school. That fear has no respect, awe, or obedience attached to it. It is simply a fear of being wrongfully hurt. God is good and just. His wrath will not fall on the innocent. Those who He finds in Christ have been pardoned. Those not covered by His blood will be punished justly and swiftly. Those who walk in His ways and obey His commandments will be declared “not guilty” and are redeemed into His presence. The disobedient will be sent away hearing, “I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness!” ()

Do you want to be happy? Do you fear and obey God in all things?

Happiness Requires Knowledge and Wisdom

says, “Happy is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who obtains understanding.” says, “Fear of God is the beginning of knowledge; wisdom and instruction, fools despise.” It follows naturally, after we have fear of God, we can now begin learning more about Him, who He is, why He created, what our purpose in life is, and so on, and so on. Solomon was the wisest man to have ever lived. In the start of his reign as king of Israel, God came to him in a dream and told him to ask of Him anything and He would give it. In , Solomon asks for knowledge and wisdom, and understanding mind and the ability to discern good from evil. From this hand, mind, and heart came the words of and . It is insufficient for us to be baptized, fear God, obey His commandments, and expect to be happy if we sit on the couch the rest of our lives not growing in knowledge of Jesus. Our Bibles ought have their pages worn thin, the bindings held together with duct tape and superglue because we are constantly seeking to grow in knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and wisdom to discern good and evil.

Do you want to be happy? Are you growing in knowledge and wisdom?

Happiness Requires Protection and Defense

The next step to happiness follows gaining knowledge and wisdom very naturally. Once we have knowledge and wisdom, we need something to do with it, right? gives us another task to do to be happy. Serve the Lord. Stand at His door and keep watch. Stand by the entrances and keep guard. Of what are we on the lookout for. Simple, attacks on the kingdom. Just as the archer in the king’s army has the duty to stand at the watch tower and protect the gate, we are to guard the Gospel, seeing that those who would pervert it are kept out of His kingdom. There are false prophets, preachers, and teachers everywhere. We are to stand guard, to make sure this perversion of Scripture does not make it into our families, our churches, our communities. When we hear false teaching, we ought to be confronting and attacking it with the sword of the Spirit, the word of God () and defending the hope that we have in gentleness and respect ().

Do you want to be happy? Are you protecting and defending God’s kingdom and the Gospel?

gives us another task to do to be happy. Serve the Lord. Stand at His door and keep watch. Stand by the entrances and keep guard. Of what are we on the lookout for. Simple, attacks on the kingdom. Just as the archer in the king’s army has the duty to stand at the watch tower and protect the gate, we are to guard the Gospel, seeing that those who would pervert it are kept out of His kingdom. There are

Happiness Requires Faith and Contentment

We are well on the road to happiness now, but we are not quite there yet. We understand happiness requires baptism and forgiveness of sin; it requires reverence of and obedience to God; it requires finding knowledge and wisdom; and it requires protection and defense of God’s kingdom and the Gospel. There is one last thing though. Happiness requires faith and contentment. says that he who trusts in God will find happiness. We must believe and trust that God is going to provide for all of our needs. He may or may not provide for us our wants, there is no promise in Scripture saying that God is going to give me the 26’ ski boat and the truck that pulls it no matter how much I say that I need it! God knows our needs as well as our wants, but he has only promised to provide for our needs.

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This promise of provision for our needs is conditional just like every promise God makes in Scripture. Whenever we find a promise from God in Scripture, we ought to ask what we are required to do to reap the promise. This one is pretty straight forward; Seek first His kingdom and righteousness and He will provide for all your needs. Just because we go to church on Sunday morning or Wednesday night every once in a while; or pick up our Bible to dust it off and say, “I might as well read a little something since I dusted it off;” or tell people that we are a Christian doesn’t mean anything. We are to seek first His kingdom and righteousness. This search is evident in our character, in our lives, in our relationships, in our education, in our occupations. It is evident in everything that we think, say, and do. Those of the world will see the newly created you and say, “What happened to you? You’ve changed!” Then we will be assured that God will provide for each and every one of our needs and we will be content with that and overjoyed for every blessing there-over. We will then live our lives trusting in the promises of God and we will find happiness.

Do you want to be happy? Are you trusting in His promises, fulfilling their conditions, and content with their outcomes?

Pray