What Is True Happiness Based On?

What is true happiness based on?

May all those who seek you be happy and rejoice in you!

Psalm 40:16, NET

Those who are “beloved of the Lord” must be the most happy and joyful people to be found anywhere upon the face of the earth. CHARLES SPURGEON

AS CHRISTIANS, our happiness makes the gospel contagiously appealing; our unhappiness makes it alarmingly unattractive. So is the church today known for its happiness or unhappiness?

Webster’s Dictionary defines happiness as—wait for it . . . “the state of being happy.”^a Synonyms include pleasure, contentment, satisfaction, cheerfulness, merriment, gaiety, joy, joyfulness, joviality, delight, good spirits, lightheartedness, and well-being.^b

The Dictionary of Bible Themes gives a more biblical definition of happiness: “A state of pleasure or joy experienced both by people and by God. . . . True happiness derives from a secure and settled knowledge of God and a rejoicing in his works and covenant faithfulness.”^c

Among Christ-followers, happiness was once a positive, desirable word. Only in recent times have happiness and joy been set in contrast with each other. This isn’t just biblically and historically ungrounded; it has undermined our understanding of merriment, pleasure, and joy.

Are laughter, celebration, and happiness God-created gifts, or are they ambushes from Satan and our sin nature that incur God’s disapproval? Our answer determines whether our faith in God is dragged forward by duty or propelled by delight.

My best times with my wife, Nanci, and our family and friends are filled with Christ-centered interaction and heartfelt laughter. These two experiences aren’t at odds but are intertwined. The God we love is the enemy of sin and the creator and friend of fun and laughter.

Many Christians in church history knew that happiness, gladness, feasting, and partying are God’s gifts. Can these good things be warped, selfish, superficial, and sinful? Of course. In a fallen world, what can’t be?

Believers and unbelievers alike recognize that there’s a negative form of happiness, which is all about self-gratification at others’ expense. The philosophy “do whatever makes you happy” gets considerable press, but people who live that way end up pathetic and despised.

Is there selfish and superficial happiness? Sure. There’s also selfish and superficial love, peace, loyalty, and trust. We shouldn’t throw out Christ-centered happiness with the bathwater of self-centered happiness.

Although the quest to be happy isn’t new, people today seem to be particularly thirsty for happiness. Our culture is characterized by increasing depression and anxiety, particularly among the young.^d Studies show that more people feel bad than good after using social media; photos and updates of everyone else having a great time leave observers feeling left out—like they don’t measure up.

Numerous Christians live in daily sadness, anger, anxiety, or loneliness, thinking these feelings are inevitable given their circumstances. They lose joy over traffic jams, a line at the grocery store, or increased gas prices. They read Scripture with blinders on, missing the reasons for happiness expressed on nearly every page.

The truth is this: it’s impossible to be truly happy, and remain happy, without believing in the sovereignty of a loving God. The beauty of the Christian worldview is that while we’re encouraged to take initiative and control what’s within our power, we also know that the huge part of life we can’t control is under God’s governance. Scripture tells us, “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3). It assures us, “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). And since God is eternally wise and good, and we’re not, we’re far better off with him in control than if we were. All the circumstances we can’t control rest in his hands.

In our fallen world, troubles and challenges are constants. Happy people look beyond their circumstances to Someone so big that by his grace, even great difficulties become manageable—and provide opportunities for a deeper kind of happiness.

Lord Jesus, help us to flee from counterfeit happiness and instead look to you, who have always been and always will be happy. We want to be like you, finding happiness in what makes our Father happy. May we not rely on our circumstances to provide the happiness we long for, but instead fix our eyes on you, the source of all joy.