by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
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?<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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<\/em>” (Ephesians 5:18).\u00a0The 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<\/strong>.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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…<\/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,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[608,374,54],"class_list":["post-80946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-excuses","tag-happiness","tag-obedience"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":35138,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/god-wants-me-to-be-happy-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":80946,"position":0},"title":"God Wants Me to be Happy (Moyer)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 7, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 by Doy Moyer This is one of the catchphrases we hear of what is sometimes called moralistic therapeutic deism. The idea is that 1) God wants us to be nice to others and 2) He wants us to be happy.\u00a0For the most part, God is seen as deistic, not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/happiness-184x300.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19553,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-personal-insult-to-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":80946,"position":1},"title":"My Personal Insult to God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 3, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Pieter Yoshua Perhaps my understanding will change in the future or I could be wrong, but I want to write this criticism for myself and perhaps it will cause you to think as well.\u00a0I thought that it is possible for me to be a Christian while living in a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/content-300x199.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14529,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/god-wants-me-to-be-happy\/","url_meta":{"origin":80946,"position":2},"title":"God Wants Me to Be Happy (Hamilton)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 18, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Psalms 128 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The same plot repeats through the stories of people\u2019s lives \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A woman finds a man who pays more attention to her than her husband, so she divorces her husband to marry this other man because \u201cGod wants me to be happy.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Andy\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":17029,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/dont-you-realize-that-there-would-be-no-children-if-people-didnt-fornicate\/","url_meta":{"origin":80946,"position":3},"title":"Don’t you realize that there would be no children if people didn’t fornicate?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I believe your site is awful because when a young girl asks an honest worried opinion about sex or fornication or whatever you continue to say how disappointed you are in them. We all realize that having sex is a sin, but do you realize that there would be\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":[]},{"id":33669,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/will-god-bless-the-marriage-of-someone-who-used-to-be-a-fornicator\/","url_meta":{"origin":80946,"position":4},"title":"Will God bless the marriage of someone who used to be a fornicator?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I have a question for a very long time and haven't been able to find the answer. This has brought much turmoil and discouragement to my soul. Now, I have heard that if a person commits fornication he or she will not have a blessed marriage. 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