“… Happy is that people, whose God is the LORD.” (Psalm 144:15)
God is not opposed to our happiness. He is opposed to our seeking of it with disregard to His will. He knows we will find the very opposite of happiness when we look for it without looking to Him.
Contrary to what we have been taught, we have not been endowed by our Creator with the unalienable right to the pursuit of happiness. What each of us has been given is the opportunity to seek and find in God the source of everlasting joy. (Acts 17:27)
Having the power to do something and having the “right” to do it are two different things. God gives no one the “right” to do whatever they please. He has given us the ability to sow and reap. He then teaches us in the “school of hard knocks” that “doing our thing” is a recipe for heartache and misery. If He says, “That thou doest, do quickly,” He is not sanctioning our action but turning us over to our own lust because our heart is hardened toward Him. He is wanting us to “see” the consequences of our contempt toward HIm. (Jer. 2:19)
The state of humankind is one of rebellion toward their Creator. Man does not seek God’s permission for those things he wants to do. He is particularly oblivious to God’s will when he is in the throes of his own passion. Each of us have been as sheep gone astray, each to our own way. But our spurned Creator became our compassionate Redeemer. Jesus came into the world to render to the Father the obedient submission that all of us failed to give to Him.
It is only as we repent of our enslavement to our own selves and desires and receive the redemption that is in Christ that we are saved from self-destruction. True and lasting happiness cannot be found in the mad rush to fulfill our own pleasure. It can only be found in a heart that has been brought into the single pursuit of pleasing God. The mission of Jesus is to release men from their idolatry and to turn their hearts to the worship of God.