The pursuit of happiness – finding our happiness in the happy God
By Tom Day, 07 Apr 2022
The pursuit of happiness – finding our happiness in the happy God
In my first part of this blog post (which you can find here) we looked at God’s happiness with the help of Adam Ramsay and his book Truth on Fire.[1] And now I want us to think about the implications of God being happy.
As human beings created in the image of our happy creator God, we are wired for happiness. Everyone is seeking it, whether we consciously know it or not. Blaise Pascal said it rather bluntly,
‘All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of other avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.’[2]
A desire for and ability to experience happiness is hard wired into our DNA. But the problem is we look for it in all the wrong places. We look for it in, power, sex, and money. And when we look to these created gifts for ultimate happiness, we find they fail to deliver every time. They seem to promise us ultimate happiness and satisfaction – yet time and time again we find them wanting. They never provide lasting pleasure.
In fact, in John 4, shortly after Jesus begun his ministry with great expectation of a coming feast as he kept the wine flowing at the wedding in Cana, he meets a Samaritan woman. It becomes seems that this woman has been looking for her happiness in all the same ways the world encourages. As she time and time again returns to the well to refill her bucket, it is a small picture of what has been happening in her relationships. Looking for happiness in them, and time and time again finding them wanting. That is, until Jesus offers her water that will never leave her thirsty again, ‘living water’ (John 4:10), ‘water welling up to eternal life.’ (John 4:14). She found herself dissatisfied with earthly pleasure and thirsty for the living water Jesus offers, and she symbolically leaves her water jar as she goes to tell others who she has found (John 4:28).
Ramsay gives the example of perhaps one of the greatest men in Church history, Augustine, and his famous search for happiness. Augustine spent the first part of his life looking for it in all the same ways the world does, in relationships, like the Samaritan woman was. But also like her, at his conversion, he found true and lasting happiness to be God.
‘There is a joy that brings true happiness, but it is not given to the ungodly. It is only for those who love You for Your own sake. That joy is to know You as You are. This is the happy life, to rejoice in You, of You, and for You.’[3] Augustine’s confessions.
This is where true happiness can be found. The problem has never been with happiness itself; it is a God-given gift from a happy God. Where we look for it is the problem. In fact, Ramsay says it stronger,
‘The God who is both happy and holy commands our rejoicing as much as he does our repenting. For what is on the other side of real repentance but a renewed gladness and joy in our salvation?’ (148, my italics)
Joy and happiness are not just optional extras to the gospel, they are an essential part of the gospel. In Romans as Paul comes towards the end of the letter he says, ‘For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and..’ what might you expect to come next? Holiness, sanctification, love of God, serving? But what comes next is ‘…Joy in the Holy Spirit.’ (Romans 14:17). Joy in relationship with God through his Holy Spirit who adopts us into Christ is the natural result of our salvation. And it is rooted in God himself who as we saw in the last blog post is happy in creation, himself, and Salvation! But this is not just an isolated thought for Paul, Ramsay says that,
‘In his letter to the Philippians, Paul mentions joy and rejoicing 16 times in just four short chapters.’ (148)
And one of those times is an explicit command to Rejoice, ‘Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!’ (Philippians 4:4). And it is not a matter of circumstance, and things going really well, Paul was writing these words from prison! Suffering and hardship will come, and we might not always feel happy in this present life. Elsewhere, in 2 Corinthians Paul acknowledges this as he explains his hardships and says he has been, ‘sorrowful, yet always rejoicing’ (2 Corinthians 6:10). Yet Paul is able to still have joy in suffering. And that is because of where his joy is rooted. Not in his circumstances, but in the Lord.
He is where we find true and lasting happiness. Where our pursuit of happiness can come to an end when we are truly satisfied in God himself. In Psalm 16 we are told,
‘You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.’ (Psalm 16:11)
Ramsay asks a very helpful and insightful question…
‘Think about it. What exactly is it, that we are told again (Matthew 26:64), and again (Mark 14:62), and again (Acts 2:33; 7:55), and again (Romans 8:34), and again (Colossians 3:1), and again (Hebrews 1:3; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2), and again (1 Peter 3:22), that is at the right hand of God? The answer is not a what but a who. It is Jesus himself at the right and of the Father.’ (146)
Our eternal joy and happiness are found in knowing God, and in knowing his Son. It is a happiness that is secure as he is in heaven, ‘where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal’ (Matthew 6:20).
If that is where we find true and lasting happiness, in the happy God in the person of the Lord Jesus, then how do we enjoy it?
‘We stop aiming at the shadows, and we set our eyes on the reality. We fix our gaze on something even higher, and our appetite on something infinitely more satisfying.’ (149)
We must have our eyes firmly fixed on Christ as the only one who can satisfy our longing for happiness. And how do we practically do that? Well, the Dutch-reformed theologian, Petrus Van Mastricht lays out a helpful list of ways we can pursue happiness in God in this way, concluding this list saying,
‘Zealously employ those means by which we are brought closer to God: faith, hope, love, repentance, prayers, and the duties of public and private worship (James 4:8).’[4]
The chief means by which we can fix our eyes on Christ is ultimately by reading his Word, where we see and meet him. It is there that God draws us to himself by his Spirit and we get the joy of knowing him better each day. So, let’s take Ramsay’s challenge seriously and with great expectation…
‘What if you refused to close your Bible in the morning without finding a reason to rejoice?’ (150)
Are you dissatisfied in your search for happiness? Fix your eyes on God himself in the person of the Lord Jesus revealed in his word. As you grow in knowing him find that happiness that lasts into eternity. The happiness of knowing the happy God through his glorious gospel!
Psalm 144 is really true in saying that, ‘Blessed are the people whose God is the LORD’ (Psalm 144:15).
[1] Quotes followed by page numbers in the body of text are from Adam Ramsey, Truth on Fire: Gazing at God until Your Heart Sings (Epsom: The Good Book Company, 2021).
[2] Blaise Pascal, Pensées (1670), cited: https://reformedforum.org/simply-blessed-mastricht-minimalism-and-the-messiah/
[3] Augustine’s Confessions, 161, cited: Adam Ramsay, Truth on Fire, 148.
[4] Petrus Van Mastricht, Theoretical-Practical Theology, Vol. 2: Faith in the Triune God. N.p (Reformation Heritage Books, 2019), 494. Cited: https://reformedforum.org/simply-blessed-mastricht-minimalism-and-the-messiah/