day 18 (week 3, day 4)
Published May 16th, 2008 in reflectWhat do you think Jesus thinks of good health, wealth, beauty, new life? What are your thoughts about them?
Dad, these exercises are really causing me to think differently. I feel like I’m being challenged more and more to justify why I believe what I do. Here I grow again.
In my selfish mode, I could easily say that you want us to be happy. But there is nothing in Your scriptures that say or indicate that. We are created for Your purposes and even where we are promised an “abundant life,” it is with the condition of seeking You first. I’m thinking that seeking You first would probably cancel some of those selfish desires.
You bless some of us with good health, wealth, beauty, and/or an abundant life. And the devil has been known to curse is with the same. None of those things lead to unconditional happiness (joy) anyway.
I believe you want us to seek You and not worship anything else. It is good to have those things but when we start qualifying the desire for those things, we probably have already raised the “golden calf” to worship it instead of You. Amen.
Hm. I haven’t given much thought about what Jesus thinks about beauty. While our culture is obsessed with the beauty of our outward shells…God looks to the inward heart to judge us beautiful or not. Are we kind, are we loving, are we acting as lights to the world. When Jesus searches my inward parts does he find beauty there?
I really believe the Lord looks at how we take care of self, not just the inside, but the outside as well. When we begin to worship self because we are a certain way from the inside or the outside we are off track. The key is to offer the Lord our best in all things and show how thankful we are for what has given us by taking care of all parts of self. Another life changing view point…
In discussing this with you I probed more into it on my own. In some ways I agree with you, but some I don’t. And in questioning myself and thought process on whether God wants us to be happy I came across someone else’s point of view on the subject:
We have lost a sense of awe before God. We want to do whatever we want to do, and then call upon God to help us … to justify us and serve us, and make us happy.
So, we imprison God within the structure we have built for Him — we live however we want to live, then when we are confronted with some portion of truth or law or some rebuke to awaken us our reply is, “Well, God wants me to be happy!” Well, God wants us to be happy, but the happiness he desires for us is spiritual, and it is based on holiness, not the flesh.
Yes — God wants us to be happy (See Eccl. 2:24; 3:12-13,22; 5:18-19; 9:9; 1 Pet. 3:10; 3 Jno. 2). There is no debate about this - God wants us to enjoy life here on earth, and be happy. He wants us to live joyfully, to see good days, and enjoy the rewards of our labor. But — if we really want to pay attention to what God wants, let’s observe this — Not only does God want me to be happy, He also wants me to be holy!! (2 Cor. 7:1; Eph. 1:3-4; Heb. 12:10; 1 Pet. 1:15,16; 1 Pet. 2:5,9; 2 Pet. 3:11).
And, we can do it! We can be happy (as defined by God), and at the same time we can be holy (as defined by God.) If we take our definitions and concepts and values from God - regarding both happiness and holiness, it is possible to be happy and holy at the same time.
God does not want us to be “happy” if it involves sin, false doctrine, causing another to stumble, fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, or the pursuit of personal lusts. Real happiness is a product of being right with God (1 Pet. 3:8-12).
So I’m still left with the question if God wants us to be happy? I believe he does, but not in the way we all conventionally think. You say there are no scriptures on our happiness, but what of us having heaven on earth? Ultimately our happiness should be of God. Through Him and by Him.
You have me doing this exercise without me even realizing it. Lol
I also found this and it gives me more understanding on what you’re saying about God and our happiness:
“True happiness comes from being at peace with the Savior, being humbled by His unfailing love, finding strength in Him, trusting He will see you through anything and everything. Paul tells us to rejoice because of this. James says to consider it joy when our faith gets tested. Peter says we can rejoice that though we suffer in circumstances, we are shielded by God’s power and we’ll receive that guaranteed inheritance. Happiness is found in the joy of knowing Him!”
Great discussion! Yeah, Sam, our conversation was probably more an issue of semantics as I agree with all of the scriptures in the way of “joy.” Happiness is more conditional and trivial and it is what people throw out to justify where they wish to place God (as you said). And I was referring to that happiness not being found in the scripture. Our purpose is not be happy but to find joy in our purpose serving God (whatever that is).
“This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” → Psalm 118:24