Does God Want Me to Be Unhappy?

by Terry Wane Benton

It is quite natural to want to be happy, and often, people think that is the whole reason God put us here. They have imagined that God just wants us to be happy no matter what. Is that true?

Let's consider this for a moment. God created us intending to win our love and eternal fellowship. Sin is the result of choosing selfish desire over fellowship with God. Sin would not be a challenge if it offered no pleasures. Sin offers temporary pleasures and tests our loyalty to God. People can and do feel "happy" in sinful things.

An alcoholic likes the pleasure he feels in being relaxed by the effects of alcohol. He thinks that is his way of being happy, and "doesn't God want us to be happy?" He forgets that God does not want him to be happy in that way. "Be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18). The happiness God wants us to pursue is not in fleshly desires fulfilled, but in a spirit that loves to drink in the Spirit's revealed word. Does God want us to be happy? Yes, but not by degrees of drunkenness or adultery or sexual immorality (I Corinthians 6:8-10). God does not want us to be happy in sin. He wants us to be happy out of sin and in Christ.

People can enjoy sin. That is why sin is tempting. But it is not a lasting pleasure. It appeals to the temporal flesh. The lasting joy is in Christ (Colossians 2:10; I Peter 1:8). That is where we develop the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22ff), which includes love, joy, and peace. That is the happiness God wants us to develop from the inside out. This will result in happiness here and forever, the most lasting and wonderful kind of happiness.

The question is whether we want to be happy in God's way or our own temporal way (I Peter 3:10-12). God wants us to learn contentment, joy, and peace in the best way, apart from sin and through Christ in you, full of glory! Do you know this lasting happiness in Christ with Christ in you?