In the twentieth century, many Bible-believing churches moved from Charles Spurgeon’s “You cannot be too happy” to “God doesn’t want you to be happy.”
Some Christian leaders—Oswald Chambers was one among many—saw the word happiness applied to sinful activities (e.g., people abandoning their families to “be happy”), so they started speaking against happiness-seeking.
Their hatred of sin and disdain for pursuing it in the name of happiness was fully justified. But their response should have been, “God is happy and built us to desire happiness. He promises the highest form of happiness in Jesus. But we should seek happiness in Him, never in sin.” Sin, by the way, is never the friend of happiness; it is its ultimate enemy!
It’s not too late to convey this message of Christ-centered happiness to our children and grandchildren and churches. Since they long for happiness, it’s a message they desperately need to hear. Getting this message across requires both our words and our consistent example of living what the Bible calls the “good news of happiness” (Isaiah 52:7).
This video, “Hardwired for Happiness,” is the second in a series that was filmed to accompany the Happiness Bible Study Book and reflect the content of my Happiness book. (The first video was shared in my last blog. All six videos are available on our website as a free resource. I encourage you to consider sharing them with your small group or church!)
Here are some resources if you’d like to explore more:
Evolution Can’t Account for Our Inborn Longing for Happiness
