Does God Want Me to be Happy?, by Tracey Moses

Although there is nothing intrinsically wrong with Christians having happiness as a goal, problems and frustrations result  when what we decide will make us happy does not agree with God's ultimate goal for our lives. The truth is that God's goal for our lives is not primarily to make us happy.

Although as a single person you may have decided that having a mate is what you need to make you happy, God's goal for you may not be marriage. Your goal may be to have a prestigious position paying more than adequate salary. You may have decided that this is what you need to be happy. But God's goal for you may not be to give you promotions or cars or houses or whatever you have decided will bring you happiness.

Our goal for ourselves usually involve relationships, promotions, and possessions, as an end in themselves, while our Father wants to use  relationships, promotions, and possessions (or the lack of them) as instruments toward His goal for each of us to become more like His Son, Jesus Christ. God is working everything in our lives toward this one supreme goal―that we possess the character of Christ. Because He knows that His goal is what will bring us true satisfaction, He will not hesitate to sacrifice our momentary comfort for His eternal purpose. It may come as a surprise to you, but God is not devoted to maintaining our happiness. He is instead, committee to developing our holiness.

Much frustration and bitterness will result if we fail to recognize and embrace this truth. Consider the Christian woman who decides that marriage is what she needs to bring her happiness, so she makes this her goal. As the years pass by and her friends get married and begin their families, she becomes consumed with the fact that she is 25 and she's not married...she's 30 and she's not married...she's 35 and still there is no prospect of marriage.

Eventually the question arises in her frustration with God: why can't I get married? Doesn't God want me to be happy? She soon grows bitter and struggles with anger. Ultimately, she's blind to God's goal in her life. She refuses to cooperate with God's goal by not pursuing intimacy with Him and not allowing Him to use the circumstances of her life to develop her character.

The result is a delay in God's purpose for her, which may include marriage if she were willing to embrace His primary goal that she becomes like Jesus. You see, the ironic thing, and the thing that we often miss is that, when we concentrate on God's goal and make developing the character of Christ our primary pursuit, often God will then give the thing that we desire―as long as our goal is Him and not the thing itself.

The challenge of the Christian life is to learn to embrace God's goal for my life and cooperate with Him, even while dying to my own goals for me. It matters not to my Father how many years pass before I accept His truth. I am the one who is delayed. He is not preparing primarily for time, but for eternity. And what is twenty years of singlehood when measured against eternity?

So what will it be in 2010? Will you allow Jesus to so work in you that you exchange what you think will make you happy―marriage or whatever your goal may be―for God's goal that you possess the character of Christ?

Whether the year 2010 or 2020, His goal for us remains the same. He has predestined that it will be fulfilled before the foundation of the world. And He is working every circumstance in our lives toward this purpose. As His Word encourages us:  "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." And what is His purpose? Is it that we all be happy? No. As the next verse reveals: "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren" (Romans 8:28-29).