A Spectacle Of Glory #274

Read: Psalm 40:16

The word happiness gets a bad rap with some Christians today. They take great pains to separate it from the word joy. Joy, they patiently explain, is a gift of the Holy Spirit, but happiness is only a shallow, knee-jerk response to pleasant circumstances. The Bible, however, doesn’t split such fine hairs. Today’s Scripture reads, “May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you.”^a The Bible uses the terms joy and happiness interchangeably—along with delight, gladness, and blessed. There is no scale of relative spiritual values applied to any of these.

Happiness is not a second class emotion beneath joy. Are we really telling people the gospel won’t bring happiness? As my friend Randy Alcorn says, “Any perceptive listener would answer, ‘Then how is it good news?’ Let’s redeem happiness in light of Scripture and church history. Our message shouldn’t be ‘Don’t seek happiness,’ but rather, ‘You will find in Jesus the real and lasting happiness you've always longed for.’”^b

Lord Jesus, in You I have found a happiness that goes way beyond the happenings in my life. I’m happy, Lord, even in my pain and trials, because I know that You are with me, that You love me, that every moment is in Your hands, and that one day soon, I will be with You forever.