Resources by Topic: Happiness

Randy Alcorn was interviewed by Pastor Todd Dubord with Mt. Lassen Community Church on the subject of happiness. In this clip, Randy talks about Romans 8:18.

Randy Alcorn was interviewed by Pastor Todd Dubord with Mt. Lassen Community Church on the subject of happiness. In this clip, Randy elaborates on a quote of his about weak faith.

When someone says, as many have, “Happiness isn’t in the Bible,” it’s not even slightly true. Even in versions that don’t frequently use the words happy and happiness, the concept is conspicuously present, not only in its many synonyms, but in words such as contentment, peace, delight, and dozens of others in every translation.

Does it really matter whether we believe that God is happy? Yes—it matters more than anything has ever mattered, or ever will. Upon it hinges, for instance, whether or not we can believe God’s promises, like those found in Romans 8.

Since lasting happiness can't be found apart from God, sin will never be a source of happiness. 

Though the answer wouldn’t be obvious to unbelievers or even to most Christians, the Bible is clear on this: it’s Jesus. 

Certainly first-century Christians experienced much heartbreak and persecution. But they also experienced happiness, celebration, and the abundant life in the midst of difficulty.

The true gospel cannot be improved upon. Theologian J. Gresham Machen (1881–1937) said, “In the gospel there is included all that the heart of man can wish.”

Sometimes focusing on God’s “big miracles”—like curing cancer and making brain tumors disappear—causes us to overlook His small, daily miracles of providence in which He holds the universe together, keeps our hearts beating, provides us with air to breathe and lungs to breathe it, and gives us food to eat and stomachs to digest it. 

In 2017, Randy Alcorn had the priviledge of speaking to a group of professional athletes on the subject of holiness and happiness. See his book Happiness for more information. 

I find that most Christians are surprised but open to these ideas about happiness, including that God is a happy God and offers us His own happiness. Yet some remain doggedly determined to believe and teach that God doesn’t want His children happy and happiness is inherently wrong. This is so strange, because what loving father doesn’t want his children full of joy and happiness, in the right sense? 

Since childhood, I’ve loved the stars. I loved them before I loved the God who made them. Loving God causes me to delight in the stars not less but more—partly because I can’t look at them without thinking of Him and partly because I know He loves His creation. When I enjoy the stars, I pay Him a compliment and join in His enjoyment.

So should we feel guilty for being unhappy, struggling with depression, and being sad at the suffering in our lives and others’ lives? No, but we should feel a liberating hope that Jesus, who knows infinitely more about suffering than we do, offers us and calls us to greater happiness than we’ve known. 

The desire for happiness in Jesus is not in opposition to our sanctification; it goes hand in hand with true, humble, Christ-honoring holiness.