Dear Editor,
I had another person tell me the other day that they believed God wanted them to be happy.
I personally believe God desires His children, saved by grace, adopted into His family, citizens of the Kingdom of God to be happy.
But it seems that every time I hear someone declare that God wants them to be happy it applies to their sinfulness in this world.
1 Thessalonians 4:3 says, “God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin.”
This should help a person to see that God desires for us to find our happiness in the midst of being holy before Him.
It amazes me that people think God will justify sin just because it makes them happy, or feel good, or deliver them personal pleasure or allows them to acquire what they want at the moment.
God is not as worried about a person’s happiness as He is about their holiness.
We are the ones that must turn from our worldly thinking and see that our true happiness is found in being holy before the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, “Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”
Those who belong to Christ have turned from the ways of this world.
They are seeking God and His kingdom through Jesus.
Our lives are different. We want to be pleasing to the Lord.
Hebrews 10:10 teaches us that, “God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.”
This is a foreign thought in our world today. We just want to be happy and have God pat us on the head and reward us because we are proud of ourselves for our personal accomplishments that have made us feel good about ourselves.
This has nothing to do with being holy before the Almighty God of Heaven.
Romans 12:2 says, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
God’s will for our lives is perfect.
If we are walking in His will we could certainly find our happiness there.
The difference is most don’t believe that happiness can be found in being holy and staying away from the sins that so easily entangle people’s lives.
I’d like to offer everyone reading this a true happiness that can only be found in a relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ.
Pastor Thomas R. Swain,
First Church of God,
Great Bend