Will We Really Live Happily Ever After?

Will we really live happily ever after?

Heavens and earth, be happy. Mountains, shout with joy, because the LORD comforts his people and will have pity on those who suffer. Isaiah 49:13, NCV

He was truly God, and therefore could satisfy; he was truly man, and therefore could obey and suffer in our stead. He was God and man in one person, that God and man might be happy together again. GEORGE WHITEFIELD

NEARLY EVERY MYTH, legend, and utopian prophecy expresses the hope that Earth and its inhabitants might be restored to the happiness we instinctively know once existed in this world but was somehow lost. “They all lived happily ever after” is more than a fairy-tale ending. It’s the deep-seated dream of the human race—a faint reflection of what will be the true outcome of God’s redemptive plan. The amazing truth is that because of who Jesus is, and what he’s done for us, God’s children really will live happily ever after!

When I came to Christ as a teenager, I found happiness like I’d never known. In the church I attended, an old Swedish Covenant congregation, we often sang the hymn “Trust and Obey,” written in 1887. Though it’s been many years since I sat in that church, the refrain still runs through my mind:

Trust and obey, for there’s no other way

To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.^a

Some might consider that message simplistic, but I found it to be completely true. When I trusted Jesus, I was happy; when I didn’t, I wasn’t. When I obeyed Jesus, I was happy. When I didn’t, I wasn’t.

All these years later, I can confirm that those words are just as true now as they were then. In fact, they’ve proven true every day of my life since. Distrust and disobedience always bring misery. Trust and obedience always bring happiness.

Note that the words aren’t an appeal to trust and obey because God demands it (though he does and has every right to). Rather, the song’s motive for trusting and obeying is being happy in Jesus.

French Reformer John Calvin (1509–1564) said, “While all men seek after happiness, scarcely one in a hundred looks for it from God.”^b One reason is because we’re sinners. Another is because, sadly, the average person—often even the average church-goer—wouldn’t guess that happiness could be found in God.

Imagine if our churches were known for being communities of Jesus-centered happiness, overflowing with the sheer gladness of what it means to embrace and live out the good news of great joy. Imagine if our children brought their friends to church and their comment was, “Those people seem so nice . . . and happy.” Wouldn’t this infuse the gospel with a meaning that most of the world has never heard and even many of God’s people have never known?

I’m not talking about artificial or pretend happiness as a strategy for church growth, but the genuine happiness that naturally flows from God and the gospel. I’m talking about a Bible that’s full of celebrations and centered on a Messiah whose first miracle was to save a party by turning water into wine.

Charles Spurgeon told his church, “There is so much misery in this world that none of us ought to add to it. . . . Let us, on the contrary, seek to increase happiness and joy wherever we can!”^c

Envision how contagious the doctrine of God’s happiness could be if taught and grasped and lived out. Imagine if we—though tired and stressed—wanted to gather with the church not out of sheer duty but because it brings more happiness than anything else we can think to do—way more, for instance, than staying home and watching television.

What if we really believed the gospel doesn’t just offer us and our children and our communities and our world what we need but offers us what, in the depths of our hearts, we want?

Think of the refreshment that weary, burdened, guilt-ridden people would enjoy if the church put on regular celebrations of biblical proportions, with great food and drink and music and laughter and fun, just to say, “We love you, Lord Jesus, and we’re here to celebrate who you are and all you’ve done for us!”

If God’s happiness truly spilled into and out of his people, make no mistake: our children and grandchildren and communities would know it. Sure, if we believe and teach God’s Word, we’ll suffer and be criticized. But if the happiness of God and in God permeated us, wouldn’t there be far more to attract the happiness-seeking world to Jesus?

May it be said of us that because of the happy God we know, the Jesus we love, and the gospel we embrace, treasure, and gladly share, we are truly the happiest people in the world. And may we see our present happiness as a down payment on the eternal happiness that awaits us, bought and paid for by the blood of Christ, who is eager to welcome us into his happiness—happiness that had no beginning and will have no end.

Creator and Redeemer, it is our duty and our delight to embrace and reflect your happiness. When we find in you every reason to be the happiest people in the world, people who need you will notice. As your privileged children, we ask for your grace to find pleasure in you and your world, in your redemptive love and grace, and in people and animals and flowers and thousands of other delights. Help us look forward to your New Earth, where the celebration and incomparable pleasures will never end.