I’ve always been told that “God isn’t interested in making me happy; He’s interested in making me holy.” So I built a theology around God as someone sanctifying me towards holiness in a way that wouldn’t encourage or protect happiness. Instead, I would grow into holiness and misery.
Well, I don’t think that’s true. Not at all.
I read this morning this quote that arrives like laughing wind chimes to my soul. Jacques Philippe writes:
Lacking hope, we don’t really believe God can make us happy, and so we construct our happiness out of covetousness and lust. We don’t wait to find the fullness of our existence in God, and so we shape an artificial identity grounded in pride.
That was me! I didn’t really believe God could make me happy. That wasn’t His job. But what if it was? What if Psalm 68:3 became true in my life where we read, “May the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful”?
I’m learning that God creates my desire for happiness to find its fulfillment in knowing Him, so it follows that Christians should be happy people. Why not ask Him to make us happy and to know that He really can?