Is Christianity about being 'happy'?

[Ronald Nolette]

Joy is an emotion. And I am certainly happy when I am joyful. I say the best way to look at the OP is God just has a different measure of happiness than we humans do, not that he doesn't want us to be happy.

Biblical joy transcends emotion. I can be miserable in my emotions but still filled with joy. Paul was not happy when whipped, but filled with joy nonetheless.

 

[Ferris Bueller]

happiness is relative

It's no or more or less relative to something than joy is. Joy and happiness are conditional on something. What God wants us to have is the happiness that is conditioned on an appreciation for God's goodness. Just as joy is conditioned on an appreciation for God's goodness and grace. Most Christians simply do not believe John 10:10. They just don't.

 

[marks]

Biblical joy transcends emotion. I can be miserable in my emotions but still filled with joy. Paul was not happy when whipped, but filled with joy nonetheless.

I don't see the difference. What I feel is what I feel. What is Joy, other than supreme happiness?

The first time I had the pain from my pinched nerve in my neck, I finally had my wife take me to the emergency room in the wee hours. All their drugs just deadened my mind, but not the pain. It dulled down a few days later, but the next Friday night hit again full force, about a 1/4 of my body, that is, my arm and chest and back, it was brutal, and it went on and on. I didn't bother with the hospital, I knew they didn't have anything for me. This felt hopeless, meaningless, and I just sat there, waiting for it to end, knowing it wouldn't, for now. And I sat there asking myself, can this really be for my good? What do I truly believe? I DO believe. I began to have a different feeling, thankfulness. I KNEW this would bring a gift, and I felt grateful.

It was a few hours later I dropped myself into a hot tub of water, which almost immediately released the pressure, and stopped the pain. It was amazing! I spent the rest of the weekend in the tub, reheating it every 20 minutes.

It was later in the afternoon on Sunday it hit me, well, "now, the rest of the story".

My church was having an Easter play, and I was to perform Jesus as He prayed in the garden. Take this cup from Me!! He pleaded with His Father! I realized . . . Jesus on the cross . . . spikes driven through His body, piercing His nerves, tearing all His nerves apart as His joints began to separate from the weight of His body, the pain He must have been in, I had received but a small taste. And like me, He was a man, in great pain.

And the Bible says that though He pleaded with His Father, begging Him to have have to endure this suffering, yet He endured the cross, despising the shame . . . for the joy that was set before Him . . . the joy of rescuing and loving a miserable wretch that is me.

If I'd had a button to push to stop my pain, I would have, well, once I found it, I did, I used it, and still do. Jesus could have stopped it at any time, but . . . I . . . was worth more than that to Him.

There is a way now that I feel I know this truth more than I ever would have without that pain.

Choosing to trust God changed my emotional state from one of dejection and hopelessness to gratitude. The pain didn't change. The emotion did.

Much love!

 

[marks]

It's no or more or less relative to something than joy is. Joy and happiness are conditional on something. What God wants us to have is the happiness that is conditioned on an appreciation for God's goodness. Just as joy is conditioned on an appreciation for God's goodness and grace. Most Christians simply do not believe John 10:10. They just don't.

Our abundant life is not determined by our circumstances, instead it is in trusting Christ quite apart from our circumstances.

Much love!

 

[Ferris Bueller]

Biblical joy transcends emotion. I can be miserable in my emotions but still filled with joy. Paul was not happy when whipped, but filled with joy nonetheless.

You can be happy in those circumstances. Just not happy in regard to the whipping. But you can certainly be happy when things aren't going good. It depends on how far sighted you are. Just examine your own life and you'll see this is true. Getting stuck in traffic doesn't mean you can't be happy. You know with a little patience you'll get home eventually, and so you can be happy in those circumstances instead of miserable. And that's the kind of happiness God gives to his children....if they'll take it. You'll get where you're going. And because that's true you can be happy along the way. In fact, I'd call that a sign of spiritual maturity.

 

[marks]

Biblical joy transcends emotion. I can be miserable in my emotions but still filled with joy. Paul was not happy when whipped, but filled with joy nonetheless.

This is true!

And this is one of those things which tell me that the negative emotions are, at least for the most post, products of fleshy life. Feelings of the body.

Having clinical depression/anxiety disorder I feel I have a real window into all that. I see how feelings are generated based sometimes on thoughts, and sometimes not. Drugs affect mood, mood is based on chemistry, a body thing. Much begins in the thoughts, but then there is much that doesn't. Fear, for instance, can have an external trigger, an internal trigger, and either can be appropriate or inappropriate, and the feelings of fear can manifest in the body from certain chemical interactions in the body.

I know that the New Creation trusts God, as the Holy Spirit yields faithfulness in my life. So those thoughts that are in trust in God, these are me, and those which are not, those are the flesh. The flesh thoughts are aften that conflicting negative emotion I can feel at the same time I'm feeling joyful.

Yes, I agree, very much so, we can feel both at the same time. I think what I'm trying to say is that the negative emotions, for the most part, don't really have a place in us anymore, and we can discard them as fleshy, and embrace the joy, and know only His joy.

Much love!

 

[DPMartin]

It's no or more or less relative to something than joy is. Joy and happiness are conditional on something. What God wants us to have is the happiness that is conditioned on an appreciation for God's goodness. Just as joy is conditioned on an appreciation for God's goodness and grace. Most Christians simply do not believe John 10:10. They just don't.

if joy was happiness then they would have said happiness. therefore if they are the same. happiness is more of a state like when one is happy to be married to their spouse. joy is usually if not always a temporary state like the celebration at the end of WWII in the U.S.

beside happiness in the day is something that many think they are entitled. and its not. whereas joy isn't perceived as something entitled. you can pursue happiness but joy isn't pursued as a permanent thing.

give it a brake will ya.

 

[Ferris Bueller]

if joy was happiness then they would have said happiness. therefore if they are the same. happiness is more of a state like when one is happy to be married to their spouse. joy is usually if not always a temporary state like the celebration at the end of WWII in the U.S.

beside happiness in the day is something that many think they are entitled. and its not. whereas joy isn't perceived as something entitled. you can pursue happiness but joy isn't pursued as a permanent thing.

give it a brake will ya.

Joy = elation. It's an emotion.

Happiness = a pleasant state of being. One that may produce emotions.

God wants you to be happy, just as he wants you to be joyful. Just like any normal, worldly father, God wants his children to be happy, too. The source of the happiness God wants for his children is what is important to consider here. That's where we bungle it up. Christians are afraid of happiness because the prosperity gospel erroneously defined happiness in terms of the things of the world:

"What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” Luke 11:11-13
​

Happiness in God's economy means being able to enjoy what you have because you are content with what you have. The taskmaster of the flesh and it's continual longing and grasping for material happiness is put to death in the submissive Christian by the Holy Spirit, and so he is able to find happiness in the things God gives that the world considers worthless and mundane.

To be happy in all your work, and in all your living, in your station in life is a gift of God. Don't think for a minute God does not want us to have that happiness. Don't discard it just because some very evil and misguided 'pastors' have defined the happiness God gives according to how the world defines it.

"Better a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure with turmoil.

Better a dish of vegetables where there is love than a fattened ox with hatred."

Proverbs 15:16-17​

 

[marks]

joy is usually if not always a temporary state like the celebration at the end of WWII in the U.S.

That's exactly it! I am so happy because war is over! God has reconciled me, and I've received that reconciliation, so I have peace with God, and that is joyous!

Much love!

 

[jessiblue]

Hi… It seems that throughout the Bible, we can see that those who suffered for Christ’s sake didn’t run away, cry, etc.; they rejoiced! Being persecuted and beat up only encouraged them to keep on preaching the Gospel! …Surely, they were able to do this only by the Grace of God.

Acts 5:40-42
40 And they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. 42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not
cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.
-jb

 

[marks]

Hi… It seems that throughout the Bible, we can see that those who suffered for Christ’s sake didn’t run away, cry, etc.; they rejoiced! Being persecuted and beat up only encouraged them to keep on preaching the Gospel! …Surely, they were able to do this only by the Grace of God.

Acts 5:40-42
40 And they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. 42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not
cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.
-jb

God gives greater grace!

Much love!

 

[DPMartin]

Joy = elation. It's an emotion.

Happiness = a pleasant state of being. One that may produce emotions.

God wants you to be happy, just as he wants you to be joyful. Just like any normal, worldly father, God wants his children to be happy, too. The source of the happiness God wants for his children is what is important to consider here. That's where we bungle it up. Christians are afraid of happiness because the prosperity gospel erroneously defined happiness in terms of the things of the world:

"What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” Luke 11:11-13
​

Happiness in God's economy means being able to enjoy what you have because you are content with what you have. The taskmaster of the flesh and it's continual longing and grasping for material happiness is put to death in the submissive Christian by the Holy Spirit, and so he is able to find happiness in the things God gives that the world considers worthless and mundane.

To be happy in all your work, and in all your living, in your station in life is a gift of God. Don't think for a minute God does not want us to have that happiness. Don't discard it just because some very evil and misguided 'pastors' have defined the happiness God gives according to how the world defines it.

"Better a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure with turmoil.

Better a dish of vegetables where there is love than a fattened ox with hatred."

Proverbs 15:16-17​

its a simple concept, faithfulness does not require happiness, nor is happiness required to be faithful. if your born again happiness isn't an entitlement. people sharing common interests, or like minded experience joy when sharing therein. many experience joy in a bar but that's not happiness is it? in the case of the born again sharing in the knowledge of Christ can be joyful. but that doesn't mean one feels that way day in and day out.

 

[Wynona]

I agree that happiness is not a bad thing for Christians to have. Its about contentment and being grateful for what you have. God enjoys blessing His children with good things.

Having a grateful heart and contentedness..."godliness with contentment is great gain" are things that can genuinely make you happy.

 

[LTJMP14]

Christianity is a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ who saved me, and its about following Him and sharing Him and His gospel message with others. Christianity is eternal love, joy, peace, etc and eternal glory with the Lord; its so much more than mere happiness.

Happiness is an event, a happenstance, something that comes and goes with circumstances, fleeting, temporal.

 

[haruto]

To my opinion happiness is a state of the highest satisfaction with the conditions of one's existence. Happiness is inextricably linked with feelings and emotions that give it an additional color. I can say that I am lucky one. I am free and I can do what I want. Recently checked info about manifestaion of love manifestrich and will use such of that tips in the near future. Everyone should be happy in our time.

 

[LTJMP14]

To my opinion happiness is a state of the highest satisfaction with the conditions of one's existence. Happiness is inextricably linked with feelings and emotions that give it an additional color. I can say that I am lucky one. I am free and I can do what I want. Recently checked info about manifestaion of love manifestrich and will use such of that tips in the near future. Everyone should be happy in our time.

Be careful of practicing manifestrich techniques: it seems it leans toward a sort of magical art.

 

[farouk]

Hi… It seems that throughout the Bible, we can see that those who suffered for Christ’s sake didn’t run away, cry, etc.; they rejoiced! Being persecuted and beat up only encouraged them to keep on preaching the Gospel! …Surely, they were able to do this only by the Grace of God.

Acts 5:40-42
40 And they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. 42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not
cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.
-jb

Hi @jessiblue I like Isaiah 48.10: "I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction". Not that we want the affliction, but that it's a great blessing to know we are chosen and that the Lord is with us...

 

[Ronald Nolette]

I don't see the difference. What I feel is what I feel. What is Joy, other than supreme happiness?

The first time I had the pain from my pinched nerve in my neck, I finally had my wife take me to the emergency room in the wee hours. All their drugs just deadened my mind, but not the pain. It dulled down a few days later, but the next Friday night hit again full force, about a 1/4 of my body, that is, my arm and chest and back, it was brutal, and it went on and on. I didn't bother with the hospital, I knew they didn't have anything for me. This felt hopeless, meaningless, and I just sat there, waiting for it to end, knowing it wouldn't, for now. And I sat there asking myself, can this really be for my good? What do I truly believe? I DO believe. I began to have a different feeling, thankfulness. I KNEW this would bring a gift, and I felt grateful.

It was a few hours later I dropped myself into a hot tub of water, which almost immediately released the pressure, and stopped the pain. It was amazing! I spent the rest of the weekend in the tub, reheating it every 20 minutes.

It was later in the afternoon on Sunday it hit me, well, "now, the rest of the story".

My church was having an Easter play, and I was to perform Jesus as He prayed in the garden. Take this cup from Me!! He pleaded with His Father! I realized . . . Jesus on the cross . . . spikes driven through His body, piercing His nerves, tearing all His nerves apart as His joints began to separate from the weight of His body, the pain He must have been in, I had received but a small taste. And like me, He was a man, in great pain.

And the Bible says that though He pleaded with His Father, begging Him to have have to endure this suffering, yet He endured the cross, despising the shame . . . for the joy that was set before Him . . . the joy of rescuing and loving a miserable wretch that is me.

If I'd had a button to push to stop my pain, I would have, well, once I found it, I did, I used it, and still do. Jesus could have stopped it at any time, but . . . I . . . was worth more than that to Him.

There is a way now that I feel I know this truth more than I ever would have without that pain.

Choosing to trust God changed my emotional state from one of dejection and hopelessness to gratitude. The pain didn't change. The emotion did.

Much love!

Go without sleep for 3 days and see if happiness and joy are the same- you will learn they are not! Joy comes from knowing God- happiness is when things go along with your worldview in an area!

I spent 8 days in th ehospital for my heart. I was not happy! I couldn't sleep, I was poked,prodded, jabbed countless times, I am a walking black and blue mark, and the food was lousy! I had pain and discomfort but I had Joy nonetheless.

As I said, Joy and happiness may look the same, but come from far different sources.

 

[Ronald Nolette]

You can be happy in those circumstances. Just not happy in regard to the whipping. But you can certainly be happy when things aren't going good. It depends on how far sighted you are. Just examine your own life and you'll see this is true. Getting stuck in traffic doesn't mean you can't be happy. You know with a little patience you'll get home eventually, and so you can be happy in those circumstances instead of miserable. And that's the kind of happiness God gives to his children....if they'll take it. You'll get where you're going. And because that's true you can be happy along the way. In fact, I'd call that a sign of spiritual maturity.

You are equating happiness with Joy as is a common mistake. but they are two different things that come from differing sources.

 

[farouk]

Go without sleep for 3 days and see if happiness and joy are the same- you will learn they are not! Joy comes from knowing God- happiness is when things go along with your worldview in an area!

I spent 8 days in th ehospital for my heart. I was not happy! I couldn't sleep, I was poked,prodded, jabbed countless times, I am a walking black and blue mark, and the food was lousy! I had pain and discomfort but I had Joy nonetheless.

As I said, Joy and happiness may look the same, but come from far different sources.

@Ronald Nolette When I was in hospital for some weeks, I remember I enjoyed thinking about Philippians...