by Chadwick Brewer<\/p>\n
“‘Son of man, behold, I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you at a stroke’… so I spoke to the people in the morning, and at evening my wife died. And on the next morning I did as I was commanded<\/em>” (Ezekiel 24:16,18).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It has become common to hear people say, “God wants me to be happy.” We can only know what God wants from us by searching His breathed-out Word. Scripture reveals that God may require a lot from us that might cause temporary unhappiness or deep sorrow. Ezekiel had to lose the delight of his eyes to serve as a sign of God’s judgment on His people.<\/p>\n
There might come a time when I must choose between a good relationship with my family and serving God faithfully. I might have to leave home, my job, and all my creature comforts to please Him. I might have to sacrifice everything I have ever owned to do His will. Maybe it’s a huge slice of humble pie required to right my wrongs or repair a relationship. I may lose friends and close companions who no longer walk with God. There might even be a time when I must forfeit my life in service to God and others. In all of these hypotheticals, happiness is not the currency of choice.<\/p>\n
The true god of happiness is me. I am the one who is supremely concerned with my happiness. God wants me to have a home with Him in heaven eternally, and He wants me to be willing to lay anything and everything on the altar of self-sacrifice to achieve that goal. So please recognize that when one says, “God wants me to be happy,” it is the individual who wants to be happy, regardless of God’s true desires.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Chadwick Brewer “‘Son of man, behold, I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you at a stroke’… so I spoke to the people in the morning, and at evening my wife died. And on the next morning I did as I was commanded” (Ezekiel 24:16,18). It has become common…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[90,374,54],"class_list":["post-69430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-god","tag-happiness","tag-obedience"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":91231,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-burden-of-the-prophet\/","url_meta":{"origin":69430,"position":0},"title":"The Burden of the Prophet","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 13, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Cleve Stafford \"The word of the LORD came to me: 'Son of man, behold, I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you at a stroke; yet you shall not mourn or weep, nor shall your tears run down. Sigh, but not aloud; make no\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45080,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-to-be-happy\/","url_meta":{"origin":69430,"position":1},"title":"How to be Happy","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Philippians 4:1-7 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Are you happy? Truly happy? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0For many people the answer is \u201cI would be happy, if ...\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If something changed, then I could be happy. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes the change is something simple. \u201cOnce I lose another ten pounds, I\u2019ll be happy.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a03.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But too\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68453,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/god-wants-me-to-be-happy-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":69430,"position":2},"title":"God Wants Me to Be Happy (Flores)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 19, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Zeke Flores \"God wants me to be happy!\" How many times have you heard that from someone? How often might you have said it yourself? Interestingly, the Bible says nothing like that. It does say that God wants you to be holy (I Peter 1:14-16), which is much deeper\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86006,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/ezekiel-and-preaching-truth\/","url_meta":{"origin":69430,"position":3},"title":"Ezekiel and Preaching Truth","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Ezekiel had a most challenging job, preaching the truth to people who were not ready to appreciate it. God gave Ezekiel the vision of God's awesome greatness, and when a preacher preaches because he has a great concept of God, he can preach the hard truths\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":80946,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-god-want-me-to-be-unhappy\/","url_meta":{"origin":69430,"position":4},"title":"Does God Want Me to Be Unhappy?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 4, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51871,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-god-hate-gays-and-bisexuals\/","url_meta":{"origin":69430,"position":5},"title":"Does God hate gays and bisexuals?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Does God hate gays and bisexuals? Answer: May I ask my own question? Does God hate thieves? What you are implying in your question is that who a person chooses to have sex with somehow innately defines who the person is. God doesn't see it that way. People can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}