Little Soul Vittles: Happiness is…

This might surprise some people, but God’s number one priority is not our happiness. We are humans with changing emotions and feelings. Happiness, as with any other feeling, does not last. When we experience happiness now it is a foreshadowing of what we will experience eternally in Heaven; it is but a taste of what is to come if we place our faith in Jesus.

God is preparing us through trials and difficulties so we can experience true and lasting happiness. This does not mean that God does not want us ever to be happy, but our happiness is only fleeting if it is not from God. I was quite happy when my wife made me some biscuits and gravy the other day for the first time, but if I had biscuits and gravy every day, I would soon be happy never to have it ever again. No pleasure, no amount of money, no achievement, no fame will keep you happy. There is always something found wanting or something seemingly better.

The Bible says repeatedly that God is the source of true happiness. One of the Hebrew words for “blessed” can also be translated “happy.”

The “word ‘blessed’ is an infinitely lovelier word than our word ‘happy.’ Our ‘happy’ stands related to ‘hap,’ ‘luck,’ ‘chance’: it is a gambler’s paradise. But the ‘Blessed’ of the (Bible) is suggestive of natural fruitfulness; it stands related to the roses round my lawn, to the corn in yonder valleys and to the autumnal harvest of the orchard. It has to do with joys that arise spontaneously and inevitably from certain fixed conditions. It is the (Greek) word ‘macaria,’ a name that was once given to the island of Cyprus because that island was said to be so fertile as to be able to produce upon its own shores everything that its inhabitants could either require or desire.” – FW Boreham The Heavenly Octave

Does this mean that Christians will be happy all the time? No. Life is hard and full of sadness, despair, disappointment, and evil. But if we persevere, we can experience Heaven in the here and now in the midst of our difficulties because all of our hopes are placed in Jesus rather than a hopeless and flawed world. In Him we can find true happiness.

“But happy is the one who trusts in the Lord , whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8

 “Happy is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.” Psalm 32:1