There is a religious platitude that says, “God never promised to make us happy.” It has been passed down for a long time, and it is often repeated in churches and households. Many people also say, “The will of God is your holiness, not happiness.” There are variations of this, but the common theme is that holiness is more important than happiness. Indeed, if we were forced to choose between holiness and happiness, we must agree that holiness is more important. However, this way of thinking is misleading. It paints a distorted picture of God’s will for us and fails to grasp the nature of holiness itself.
Holiness assumes and includes faith, and it is unholy to be faithless. Faith itself is holiness, or a core aspect of holiness, and true faith leads to miracles, healings, prophecies, and blessings. The Bible tells us that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. God delights in blessing his people. He is not a miser who holds back good things from his children. He is a generous Father who rewards those who come to him in faith. So, if holiness assumes and includes faith, and if faith brings forth the blessings and miracles of God, then holiness itself must lead to our happiness. The pursuit of holiness is not opposed to our joy, but it is the very pathway to experiencing the fullness of joy that God has promised.
The truth is that God has promised to make us happy. God promised us joy in many places throughout the Bible, and joy is nothing less than happiness. Some religious people claim that joy is different from happiness, that joy is some kind of spiritual state that can exist even when a person is not actually happy. This is absurd. It is faithless religious sophistry used to deny that God wants us to experience true happiness. Joy is happiness. There is no such thing as sad joy. Joy is not a mystical state that has no bearing on how we feel. It is, by definition, a state of happiness and delight.
Consider what Jesus said: “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” God invites us to ask of him, to come before him in faith, and to receive from him, so that our joy, or our happiness, may be made full. Imagine how ridiculous it would be for someone to say, “God answered my prayer, and I am so sad that he answered, but I am still joyful.” Such a statement makes no sense because joy and happiness cannot be distinguished like that. When God answers our prayers, it brings us happiness, and this is the very nature of joy.
God not only promises us joy, but he also commands us to rejoice. Paul wrote, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” Even if God had not promised us joy, we would still be obligated to be happy because he has commanded us to rejoice. But the beauty of it is that God has both promised and commanded it. The failure, then, is not on God’s part but on ours. Most people fail to believe and obey this basic command and promise of the gospel. Instead of changing themselves to align with God’s word, they attempt to change the gospel itself, denying that God wants them to be happy. And then, not content with their own misery, they attack those who teach what Jesus said about this. I will not be discouraged by such people. It is fine if they choose to remain unhappy, but I will take hold of God’s promise. My joy will be full.
Faithless religion has invented the lie that happiness is somehow unspiritual, or that to be happy would require us to compromise our holiness. This could not be further from the truth. Happiness, according to the Bible, is not necessarily tied to our circumstances but is rooted in our relationship with God. However, this does not mean that happiness is unrelated to what happens in our lives. On the contrary, many of God’s blessings relate to our circumstances, and when God answers our prayers, it brings us joy.
Faithless religious people are often very unhappy for at least three reasons. First, they do not in fact believe in God, and they do not like him. It makes them miserable to pretend. Second, they do not have faith, so they cannot receive from God, and therefore they do not experience the joy that comes from the salvation and blessing of God. Third, they are wicked and disobedient, so that they refuse to obey God’s command to rejoice. They would rather remove the very idea of happiness from rejoicing, so that they can rejoice and be sad! It is nonsensical and grotesque. They do not want to admit that they are faithless and unspiritual, and so they invent the idea that faith is not associated with happiness. They want to spread this lie to the world, so that everybody can be miserable with them. They are unhappy with God and want to make their misery the standard for everyone.
The Bible shows us that God approves happiness in his people. It says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” The verse does not affirm mainstream and orthodox Christianity — counterfeit Christianity — which says that God will comfort us in our misery and sustain us as we endure the hardship that he himself inflicts upon us. It is a promise that when we delight in God, when we find our joy in him, he will fulfill our desires. In other words, “Be happy with God, and you get what you want.” The Bible also says, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” God’s presence is not a place of sorrow and despair; it is a place of fullness of joy and eternal pleasures.
If we were in a position where we had to choose between holiness and happiness, we would choose holiness. But this is a false and senseless dichotomy. True holiness is fully compatible with happiness. In fact, holiness is the way to happiness. Holiness includes faith in Jesus, and faith in Jesus is the key to experiencing the joy that God has promised. The only time holiness and happiness seem to be in conflict is when we struggle with evil desires. For example, if someone desires to commit murder or adultery and feels unhappy because they are not allowed to fulfill these sinful desires, then holiness and happiness will be in conflict. The unhappiness is the frustration of sinful impulses. If you even desire to murder someone, you are already unholy. The solution is to repent and turn to Jesus Christ. So there remains no conflict between holiness and happiness.
When we understand holiness correctly, affirming that it entails faith for miracles and faith to obtain our desires through prayer, we see that there is no conflict between holiness and happiness. On the contrary, holiness leads to happiness. Faith is holiness, like love is holiness, and humility is holiness. And when we have faith, we can pray, and God will answer us. When God answers our prayers, it brings us joy. We can be happy in God’s vindication, in his provision, and in the prosperity that he brings into our lives. The Bible tells us, “The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.” God’s blessings are meant to bring us joy, not sorrow. Those who claim that God never promised to make us happy have rejected God’s promises because of their faithless prejudice.
When Jesus healed the sick, delivered the oppressed, and raised the dead, did these acts bring joy or sorrow to those who received them? They brought joy. They brought sorrow only to those who wanted to murder Jesus. When the blind received their sight, when the lame walked, and when the lepers were cleansed, the response was one of great happiness. As Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” Jesus wants his joy to be in us, and he wants our joy to be full. This is not the language of a God who is indifferent to our happiness. This is the language of a God who cares about our well-being and wants us to experience the fullness of his joy.