I wish I had found out earlier in my life that God was happy. Oh, how that would have changed my perception of him!
Yes, he is eternally happy, forever delighting and loving within himself as the Trinity. And yes, that means when we know him, we are brought into that beautiful, ever-flowing Source of joy forever. In him is the fullness of all things, and he reigns over all things on heaven and earth.
I’ve been studying Colossians recently in tandem with Randy Alcorn’s superb treatise on a theology of happiness. What a surprising, undiscussed doctrine! Our eternal Grace and peace and hope flow from our God, and is the preeminent one over all creation (Col 1:3, 5, 15, 17).
Our God is the source of all delight and exudes all delight. He is the only one who can fill our empty places in our hearts, who can lead us to eternal joy, and bring us to rest. In my journey battling sin and idols, I’ve realized that the hard fight against sin and pursuing holiness involves a lot of looking at Jesus. How do we forsake false loves? By looking at our Savior. How do we become happier and more satisfied? By running to intimacy with our Savior. How do we overcome sin? By seeing the beauty of our Savior. What can make us truly happy? Knowing and being in relationship with our Savior.
I’m learning how to delight in God – in his provision, yes, but ultimately in himself. He makes everything more colorful and full of light. Life is sorrowful, teeming with trials, and painful, but knowing Jesus Christ washes one’s world with hope: the hope that this is all the hell we will ever have to experience, the hope of being with him in his presence for eternity, and the hope of finally finding purpose and meaning to this life.
My prayer is to go deeper in my walk with him and know him more all the time. Seeking him in his word, in prayer, in obeying him, and in meditating on his beauty are the keys to unlocking the chains of strongholds. The power of the Holy Spirit makes this all viable and real.
I am not a slave to sin, but I may still act like one. I have access to the eternal joy of knowing my Creator and drinking from his well of love and happiness, but I easily forget where the well is and that I can go there.
Praise God for his faithfulness, and that he doesn’t leave us where we are.
I am currently on day 5 of a sugar fast to try and break some of my poor eating habits, using this time to remember who God is when I desire unhealthy foods. I’m doing an okay job – I successfully have avoided all desserts, hot chocolate, scones, etc. but I still ate french fries today, and I know there was honey in the corn muffins at lunch. I want to break these cravings because I find myself slaving after them. But my Lord calls me to be happier than that – to find my satisfaction in him instead, because that’s what I’m ultimately made for.
I know that instead of Jesus being the center of my heart, it’s more like a piece of pizza or a chocolate chip cookie. And I am disturbed by my lack of caring at times. But other times I don’t let the apathy win. It’s a long road, though.
Can fullness be found in Christ? Can happiness and sweetness be found there, in his Word and in knowing him? The answer is an emphatic “YES!”
“You make known to me the path of life
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11)
He is the Lord over creation, the Father who tends my wounds and feeds me what I need rather than what I want, the Savior who lived and died and rose so I could be united with him forever, the one who wrote himself into the pages of the story so he could redeem the world and make all things new.
Jesus, Savior, pilot me. Lead me to clean water and turn my head, Spirit, from empty, broken, poison cisterns.
