Does Obeying God Mean Sacrificing Our Happiness?
Have you ever heard it said that God doesn't necessarily want us to be happy, but rather to be holy? I have. It seemed confusing to me. How about you? Randy Alcorn, a prolific writer and bible teacher has written a recent book entitled simply Happiness. Randy explains more as follows...
Ernie
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By Randy Alcorn
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Until now you have asked nothing in my name.
Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
(John 16:24)
It is a Christian duty . . . for everyone to be as happy as he can. - C. S. Lewis
You may be unaccustomed to thinking that God commands us to be happy or to do things that make us happy. But He does. And I'd wager that since the outcome of our obedience would be our happiness, these are commands we would all want to obey-provided we were thinking clearly.
Some people have an intuitive resistance to the notion that happiness is unbiblical, and rightfully so. A blogger says, "Happiness isn't in the Bible? But what about all the commands to rejoice? What about laughter? Please tell me I'm not supposed to always be heavy-hearted, trudging along and begrudging obedience. I want to be a happy Christian!"
Happiness is a privilege. However, since God repeatedly calls upon us to rejoice, delight, and be glad in Him, we have an obligation to actually do so.
This makes sense only if the God we love is happy, if the gospel message we embrace and proclaim is happy, if Heaven is a happy place, and if it makes God happy for us to be happy. It makes sense if we understand that people long to be happy and won't turn to Jesus if they believe there's no happiness in Him. Others will judge whether there's happiness in Jesus by whether they see happiness in His followers. Hence, our happiness is, in multiple respects, a Christian duty.
But what an incredibly wonderful duty it is . . . like being required to eat Mom's apple pie! We're accustomed to thinking of duty as drudgery. Yet we know that the duties of loving a spouse or caring for a child or serving one's country can bring satisfaction, contentment, and happiness.
People have told me it's easy to speak of happiness in a prosperous country, but how dare we say God expects those impoverished and suffering to be joyful?
Randy Alcorn is the author of over fifty books and the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries.epm.org
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