Can Happiness Really Be Spiritual?

Can happiness really be spiritual?

Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; and let those who love Your salvation say continually, “Let God be magnified!” Psalm 70:4, NKJV

Living for others is really the Christ life after all. Oh, the satisfaction, happiness and joy one gets out of it.

GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER

JOY CAN BE SPIRITUAL or unspiritual, as can happiness. Isaac Watts (1674–1748), who wrote “Joy to the World,” also spoke of “carnal joys.”^a

Charles Spurgeon recognized the difference between false and true joy:

Christ would not have us rejoice with the false joy of presumption, so He bares the sharp knife and cuts that joy away. Joy on a false basis would prevent us from having true joy, and therefore . . . the joy we may get may be worth having—not the mere surf and foam of a wave that is driven with the wind and tossed, but the solid foundation of the Rock of Ages!^b

Someone can have Christ-centered happiness or Christ-denying happiness. The former will last forever; the latter has an exceedingly short shelf life.

Notice A. W. Tozer’s negative use of joy and positive use of happiness more than sixty years ago: “Human beings are busy trying to work up a joy of some sort. They try it in dance halls . . . they turn to television programs. But we still don’t see the truly happy faces.”^c Tozer realized that artificial attempts at creating joy can’t create the happiness that only comes from Christ.

When God calls us to rejoice in him, does he care only about what we think and do, not how we feel about him? No. He commands us to love him, not just with all our minds but with all our hearts (see Matthew 22:37).

In a remarkable passage, God rebukes people not for failing to serve him but for serving him unhappily: “Because you did not serve the LORD your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you” (Deuteronomy 28:47-48, NIV).

Yes, it’s possible to obey and serve God without feeling joy. But God emphatically says he wants us to feel joy! Feelings are not the entirety of joy, but since God’s joy involves emotions, shouldn’t our joy involve emotions?

The psalmist said, “I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God” (Psalm 43:4). Can you imagine saying to someone, “You are my exceeding joy” without feeling strong emotion?

Mike Mason writes,

When I’m joyful, I’m happy, and when I’m happy, I’m joyful. What could be plainer? Why should I want anything to do with a joy that isn’t coupled with happiness, or with a kind of happiness that is without joy? Happiness without joy is shallow and transient because it’s based on outward circumstances rather than an attitude of the heart. As for joy without happiness, it’s a spiritualized lie. The Bible does not separate joy and happiness and neither should we.^d

David Murray identifies six kinds of happiness available to unbelievers and believers alike:

• nature happiness
• social happiness
• vocational happiness
• physical happiness
• intellectual happiness
• humor happiness

The one remaining component, available only to believers, is spiritual happiness. Murray calls it “a joy that at times contains more pleasure and delight than the other six put together.”^e

Spiritual happiness comes in contemplating God and drawing close to him. Of course, the other six aren’t “unspiritual” forms of happiness. Because they’re God given, they’re spiritual, though not redemptive. But without the seventh kind of happiness, the first six are temporary. A reconciled relationship with God, in concert with an understanding of the biblical teaching of a resurrected Heaven and Earth, assures us that all happiness will be ours forever.

Jesus experienced all forms of happiness, and so can we. With an eternal perspective, only the righteous enjoy true happiness (see Psalm 16:11; 21:6; 36:7-10; 37:16; 43:4; 73:28; John 10:10). The forever that awaits us should color our lives now. We should daily front-load eternity’s joys into our present experience.

Spurgeon said it well:

Are there not periods of life when we feel so glad that we would fain dance for joy? Let not such exhilaration be spent upon common themes, but let the name of God stir us to ecstasy. . . . There is enough in our holy faith to create and to justify the utmost degree of rapturous delight. If men are dull in the worship of the Lord our God they are not acting consistently with the character of their religion.^f

Father, your kindness and grace are hard to understand but easy to appreciate. Thank you for the joy you’ve brought into our world through the gift of your Son. May those who have tasted happiness and joy but do not know you be drawn to the Christ-centered joy of your people. Help us to realize how eager you are to infuse our hearts with your happiness. Move us not only to serve you but also to serve you joyfully and gladly, thereby bringing you joy and gladness.