God Wants Me to Be Happy | Dana C. Baldwin

Introduction

Christians believe some dumb things. If I have heard it once, I’ve heard hundreds of times—God wants me to be happy, right? I’ve heard it from a man who wanted to leave his wife for another woman; I’ve heard it from Christians who want to justify their sinful behavior; I’ve heard from women who cannot understand why things are happening as they are. Doesn’t God care about my happiness? Don’t we sing “Does Jesus Care?” with the understanding that the answer is “yes, he cares?” Our Constitution says that happiness is our inalienable right. So we pursue our happiness with great zeal and wonder why it is that God doesn’t preserve our happiness for us no matter the situation. We may even be willing to acknowledge that one cannot always be happy, but unhappiness should be fleeting and that happiness is really the intent of God for our lives.

We even end our fairy tales with those immortal words “and they lived happily ever after.” I do not want to give the wrong impression to our young people. But neither do I want to gloss over the truth. Living by the vows of “for better or worse; for richer or poorer, in sickness or in health” is not a piece of cake. Most of us know that marriage doesn’t guarantee happiness. The pursuit of happiness has led many to quit jobs, marriages, relationships, commitments, and their relationship with God. Personal happiness is more important than just about anything else. The standard for sticking with things has become “as long as I am happy.”

At the basis of this dumb thinking is that God is supposed to ensure that our personal desires and success are at the top of his list. God is for our benefit. God is supposed to make sure that life is good. After all, didn’t Jesus himself say that he came to give us a full life? With this thinking comes the belief that we can choose the direction of our spirituality. The spiritual life is the one that demonstrates success, not the one which is based on truth and goodness. God is obligated to meet my demands of personal satisfaction. He is servant to us. This is what it means to say “God wants me to be happy, doesn’t he?” God isn’t at our disposal. It is the other way around. Tonight, we will look at ways to think differently about this pursuit of happiness.

Circumstantial Happiness

By definition, happiness is based on circumstances. Happiness has to do with what is happening at the moment. Happiness by definition is fleeting. Since circumstances determine our level of happiness, then the objective is to have as many circumstances go right as possible. This guarantees extensive happiness. But what happens when circumstances change and there is trouble. Then we aren’t happy and the objective is to fix things as quickly as possible so that we can return to happiness.

So what is it going to take to make you happy? Let’s say for the sake of argument it will take reasonably good health, a good family and friends, a job that promotes a sense of purpose and value, and a modest accumulation of things. Would this make you happy? What if you had all of these things except a functional family? What if you had all four things except severe allergies for six months? What if you had all these things except a child was wheelchair bound? Or your child is barely making it through school? Would that make you happy? The truth is, I don’t know anyone who has everything just right in order for them to be happy. We always want to tweak something or change something or even make the statement “I would be happy if we just had more money or more time or better jobs or less stress or any of a hundred other things.” Pursuing happiness is just plain dumb.

Now that is not to say that we should instead pursue depression. But if you look through the Bible, the word “happy” just doesn’t appear very much. And when you do find the word, it means “greatly blessed.” The Greek word used in Matthew 5 is the word “makarios.” Some want to translate it happy, but if we do we really skew the meaning of the word. The same word is used in John 13:17, “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” Not happy, but blessed. According to Jesus, real blessings or happiness comes if we obey God. Now that is quite different from pursuing feelings of euphoria by altering circumstances.

Read the eight Beatitudes in Matthew 5. Substitute the word “happy” for “blessed” and you will discover that the Bible does tell us how to be happy. But it isn’t found in the American dream. It is found in obedience to God. It is found in mercy and taking it on the chin when persecuted and poverty of spirit and meekness and bringing peace to others and wanting to know God more than anything else. In the Bible, circumstances do not dictate happiness. In the Bible, listening and obeying God brings real blessing.

Contentment

We have put the Bible in a 21st century context and when we do that we inevitably make it say something it doesn’t. Ask Paul if happiness was his pursuit when he was beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, cold and hungry. Or in the modern context, move to Mexico and live in poverty and tell me if the pursuit of happiness is the goal. Can one be a Christian in poverty? Too many times we are told that disciples were beaten and punished by their opponents and they are described as rejoicing. While they didn’t run to the opposition and seek a beating every morning, neither did they pray for God to change the situation. Instead they thanked him for being found worthy to suffer at the hands of their opponents.

We know that Paul asked three times for some kind of infirmity to be taken away and God’s answer was “No. My blessing of grace is enough.” God was present with Paul and the other disciples in order to help them through the tough times, not to take them away. Paul says in Philippians 4 that he has learned the secret to being content. Learned—contentment isn’t a part of us. We have to be taught to be content and that usually means going through some tough times in order to trust God to take care of things. Learning to be content happens in the wealth of the USA and it happens in the slums of Calcutta. I can do everything through Christ doesn’t mean we get everything we want, but we can make it because of the strength which comes from Jesus.

It is very much like a child with a parent. A child is completely dependent upon the parent. A child depends upon the love, support, and money of the parent. While the parent works to provide, the child does child things without worrying about or thinking about the stuff that parents have to think about. The child learns how to be content even as the parent is working to provide. God does that for us. We need to learn to be content while he is busy working to bring about his will and purpose. We do not pursue our happiness, we learn to be dependent.

In 1993, three missionaries from the Baptist fellowship were kidnapped in Colombia, South America. As far as I know they are still missing. Their families do not know if they are dead or alive. They are probably dead. Do you think their wives are happy? Probably not. Is it possible for them to be content? Listen to the wives of Mark Rich, David Mankins, and Rick Teneoff.

Tania Rich, wife of Mark Rich, said: “Those guerrillas have taken everything away from our husbands and lots away from us and our children, but one thing they can’t take away from us is our right to choose joy no matter what happens in our lives.”

Nancy Mankins, wife of David Mankins, shared: “It’s a trial of our faith. Since this happened, I have read Scripture with a new light, and my faith has grown deeper. I have realized that God doesn’t tell us he’ll get us out of situations, but he’ll be our strength through them.”

Patti Teneoff, wife of Rick Teneoff, explained: “We have a choice every day to pry our hands loose and give our husbands up to the Lord, saying, ‘They’re yours, Lord. Dave, Mark, and Rick are yours. Our lives are yours, and you can do whatever you please with them.’ That’s not easy, but every time I do, God is there to catch me up and help me walk above the circumstances.”

Does that sound like seeking happiness or learning to be content through obedience to God? Let’s serve God and seek his will even as he teaches us to be content.

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