If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it dozens of times. “God wants me to be happy.” Really?
God wants me to be Christlike. No argument there. God wants me to love my wife, my kids, my friends, even my enemies. Agreed.
God wants me to forgive. Yes. God wants me to be faithful to him and the commitments I’ve made. Yeah. God wants me to obey his Word.
Absolutely. God absolutely wants you to be happy, but the problem is too often we make being happy a priority. We pursue it at all costs and in a way that can never bring genuine or lasting happiness.
The problem with the “God wants me happy” philosophy is we use it most of the time to justify doing something wrong. “Can it really be wrong if it makes me happy—something God wants me to be?”
“I can’t live with this person anymore. I’m going to get a divorce. After all, God wants me happy.” I’ve had a tough week. I’m gonna party hearty tonight. God wants me happy, doesn’t he?”
In our pursuit of happiness, we chase any bunny trail we can find. Buy this product, see this website, drive this car, take this vacation, join this gym, indulge in this activity… We’re being sold a pack of lies. If they make us happy at all, it’s temporary at best.
John Eldredge wrote, “Though happiness is never the highest goal, it comes to us naturally when the other aspects of our lives are in order.”
Did you catch that? Happiness cannot be the highest goal. It is a by-product “when the other aspects of our lives are in order.”
Solomon learned this truth the hard way. In the book of Ecclesiastes, he shared his experience with the “happiness quest.” He tried to find happiness by any means possible—pleasure, sex, work, education, friendship, climbing the corporate ladder, fame, wealth and the things it can buy.
His findings: they don’t bring happiness. Repeatedly Solomon concludes that a life lived to chase after happiness is meaningless. Empty. Frustrating.
As he looks back over his search for happiness, he realizes one thing: Putting the pursuit of God as the chief reason for life is the answer. Only that brings true happiness.
Someone said the secret of a happy life is giving God:
1. The first part of your day
2. The first priority to every decision
3. The first place in your heart.
Good advice if you want to find happiness. Jesus knew the same thing. He declared that the pursuit of things doesn’t bring happiness; it only triggers worry.
What if I don’t get these things? What if I don’t have enough? What if they run out? Worry deletes happiness. You get either one or the other, never both.
Jesus concludes with these words, “But seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things [you’re worrying about] will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6.33).
You want to be happy? Get your life in the proper order. Stop pursuing happiness as your goal and seek God first. Happiness will follow naturally.
Happiness is all about your focus. When you pursue the right things—or should I say, pursue the right person, God—happiness happens. A deep and abiding happiness.
When faced with the choice between doing what God says will bring you happiness and doing whatever you think will make you happy, always pick God’s recommendation. He alone knows the path to true and lasting happiness. And he’s told us what it takes: seek him first.
The pursuit of happiness leads to a dead, disappointing end. The pursuit of God leads to a life without regrets, filled with joy and peace even during difficult times.
In conclusion, here’s what C.S. Lewis deduced: “God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.” If you want true happiness, seek God.
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Steve Wilmot is a former Edgerton, Ohio area pastor who now seeks “to still bear fruit in old age” through writing. He is the author of seven books designed to assist believers to make steady progress on their spiritual journey.