Question #5 Doesn't God Want Me to be Happy? By: Dr. Danny Purvis

One of the reasons why believers (and those who claim to be Believers) seem to embrace so many of the anti-biblical social issues of the day is because their reasoning is based on a faulty foundation. It really is not much more complicated than that. And while that foundation has many tendrils that adversely affect their thinking and their doing, the basic fallacy is based on the errant idea that God saved His people for them to be happy. So imbedded is this idea that it even made it into this nation’s founding documents. “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”, is what Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence. Not long ago I was sitting in one of the Student Ministry gatherings as our previous Youth guy was teaching a lesson. He had these young folks each state out loud one characteristic of God and how it relates to their own life. One kid said: “God wants me to have a happy life”.
Immediately after the lesson, I went to our Youth guy and told him I thought he had missed a golden opportunity. Once that kid uttered that phrase, all engines should have shifted into stop to address this idea. Why? If this youngster really believes that one of God’s primary functions is to ensure our earthly happiness, what happens when unhappy things happen? And they will happen. The older I get…the more perplexed I am that Believers seem to hold God to promises He never made. And when you do that…and when that “promise” goes unfulfilled, we will not blame us for having bad theology. We will blame God for not fulfilling a promise He never made in the first place. If I believe, like that kid, that God wants me to be happy…and then unhappy things happen…then God let me down. He doesn’t care. Maybe He’s not really there at all. See the problem? Bad theology has terrible, real-life ramifications. And holding to the idea that one of God’s main purposes is for me to be happy is extremely bad theology.
Did you know that in both Old Testament Hebrew and New Testament Greek that there is no word in those languages that can purely be translated as “happy”? Though there are some translations that use that word in their versions, the vast majority of the times the words used are translated as “blessed”, not “happy”. This is not being nit-picky; this is a very important construct with real-world ramifications for the Christian. Believers embrace anti-God social issues related to abortion; gender issues; sexuality issues; etc. Why? “Don’t they have the right to be happy”, is often the reply given. See what I’m saying? The foundation…it is warped, cracked, and theologically crumbling beneath their feet. And it is vitally important we get this right or we will end up pushing people further away from God than helping to draw them in.
Let’s make this as clear as we can. God does not exist in order to make us happy. He does not promise the Believer that he/she will be happy. There is not one instance in the New Testament where happiness is promised by God nor is there a command to the Christian to seek out happiness. In fact, just the opposite is promised. We are, however, promised: The word will hate us (John 15:18-25); your family may mock you (Matthew 10:34-39); we will be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:11-12); we will be falsely accused (Matthew 5:10-12); we will experience pain and suffering (Romans 8:18). Now tell me. What about any of those things will produce happiness? And therein lay the problem.

Happiness is an emotion…pure and simple. Oh, don’t get me wrong…it is a wonderful emotion. I love being happy. It feels great. In fact, there is little that feels better. But it is an emotion that is 100% based on external circumstances. In other words, my temporal, earthly circumstances dictate my happiness. It ebbs and flows along the river of life. Somethings happen that make me happy…some things happen that make me sad. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he gives us the foundational constructs related to being a follower of Christ. This passage is commonly referred to as the “Fruit of the Spirit” and is found in Galatians 5:22-23. This is the promise God gives us about our existence on this planet and the characteristics He bestows upon His people via His Holy Spirit. What are they? Love; joy; peace; patience; kindness; goodness; faithfulness; gentleness; self-control. The word happy does not appear here. The idea of happiness does not appear here. Instead, what does appear here are two ideas that we must see in this context.
The two words in that list that may be the closest to our idea of happiness are “joy” and “peace”. Joy and peace are not emotions. Joy actually comes from the root word that means “grace”. And peace actually presupposes unhappy circumstances in and of itself. Joy and peace transcend emotion. They are a state of being not a feeling of the heart. Joy and peace are not dependent on external circumstances…they are dependent on the Holy Spirit. I can be the unhappiest guy in the world and still have joy. I can be the unhappiest guy in the world and still have peace. That is exactly why God calls this amazing gift of peace one that “surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). God does not focus His energy on us being happy or unhappy. Instead, He has transformed us into beings that have joy and peace in spite of happiness and unhappiness.
When we are talking to unbelievers about God (and even Believers for that matter), we must tell them the truth. God is not going to ensure that while we are on this planet, we will be happy. In fact, he promises the opposite. Happiness is not our goal as it is not attainable. Pursuing happiness for the Believer is the equivalent of the hamster on the wheel. The harder we strive, the more we remain exactly where we are. God does not give me happiness. He gives me peace…He gives me joy. And I’ll take that over happiness any day of the week.
 -Dr. Danny Purvis