Happiness or Holiness?

Happiness or Holiness?

“God didn't save you to make you happy. That's a by-product. He saved you to make you holy. You were predestined to be conformed to the image of God's Son” ~ Vance Havner.

Happiness has more "weight" than Holiness in the minds of people in today's world! A pampered generation has gone on record "showing" their disdain for anything holy and have openly embraced the 'happiness at any cost' spirit. Happy go lucky syndrome is on the rise everywhere. The crowds of the community or the folks at the church are behaving the same way when it comes to the matter of happiness! Strangely, the church is "listening" to the voice of the world rather than to the voice of God. It is happening just as it was predicted in 2 Timothy 3 chapter that in the last days men will become lovers of self and lovers of pleasure. Men and women are bent upon seeking happiness above all. For them to be successful is to be happy at the end of the day. To be happy, they compromise with holiness and trade it for the "passing pleasures." Tragically, the moment we lose our holiness for happiness, we are in for a shock. We may be happy for a moment but sad forever! C.S. Lewis wrote, "God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing." How true? Alas, if only men could see this truth clearly. When you have holiness real happiness will follow you. “You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.” -- Hebrews 1:9. True contentment and unspeakable joy springs up from a holy heart and a humble mind.

The way you "condition" your heart depends upon the way you perceive life. For many, life is all about happiness. They study, they work, they earn, they strive, they run and they do everything just to be happy. In their pursuit of happiness men go to any extreme, willing to compromise to any extent, and are eager to degrade themselves by all means only to get what they want! But in the end, every thing simply leaves them empty and unfulfilled because what they believed is not true. “Happiness is not the end of life; character is” thundered Henry Ward Beecher. Very few have this mindset. “Brethren, happiness is not our being's end and aim. The Christian's aim is perfection, not happiness; and everyone of the sons of God must have something of that spirit which marked his Master” wrote Frederick W. Robertson. Solomon declared that everything under the sun is "vain" or in other words an attempt to "grasp the wind." But for the followers of Christ it is the other way round, when they love holiness, when they long for holiness, and when they live holy they are flooded with overflowing joy, about which the world doesn't know or the world can ever offer! According to Clement of Alexandria, “Happiness is the practise of virtues!” When we exercise God given virtues we are filled with joy. Jesus is the true joy giver and it can come only to those who are holy. God pours out the scintillating juice of joy into the vessels of holiness.

Someone said, "Happiness depends on happenings!" It’s true in a worldly sense but does not hold good for God’s people! Common sense tells us that it's not a good deal because it is very uncertain that what you expect will happen all the time. No one can guarantee that good times will prevail all the time. It would be foolish to lay the foundation of our life on such fleeting things! On the other hand the unchanging Lord imparts holiness to all who seek to have it from him. Holiness is God’s ultimate will for all his children 1 Thessalonians 4:7. Holiness is not "hollowness," it is wholeness! It is the hallmark of every saint of God. When people are "connected" to God through holiness they are always filled with abundant satisfaction. Margaret Charlton Baxter aptly sums up for us our goal by saying, “Why should my heart be fixed where my home is not? Heaven is my home; God in Christ is all my happiness: and where my treasure is, there my heart should be.” Enlightened souls breathe free and enjoy true life as it comes from the Lord. What more can a person ask for after being made whole and fulfilled?