As part of a study related to my Happiness book, I recorded a series of videos, 10 to 20 minutes each, on the subject of happiness in Christ. I’ll be sharing all six videos, one at a time over the course of the next few blogs. Here’s the first video in the series, titled, “Happiness vs Joy: The Conflict.”

Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, preached a prototype gospel message, asserting three times the happiness of the one who is at the center of the gospel—Jesus. Yet how many people, unbelievers and believers alike, have ever heard a modern gospel message that makes this point? 

In his book Happiness, Randy Alcorn dispels centuries of misconceptions about happiness and provides indisputable proof that God not only wants us to be happy but also commands it. This is the most definitive study on the subject of happiness to date and a paradigm-shifting wake-up call for the church and Christians everywhere.  Randy Alcorn filmed six 15- to 20-minute teaching sessions to be used in conjunction with the Happiness Bible Study Book.

The better I know Jesus, the more I see Him all around me—in people, animals, places, and objects. But if I hadn’t studied His Word and reflected on His character over the years, I wouldn’t have known what to look for.

Throughout the difficulties and joys that 2025 will bring, you’ll find abiding happiness as you go back to God’s Word again and again. One Bible reading program to consider is the Bible Recap, a chronological readthrough with Tara-Leigh Cobble. Several of our EPM staff did it in 2024, and highly recommend it. 

God feels love, compassion, anger, and happiness. He’s never overwhelmed by unsettling emotions, nor is He subject to distresses imposed by others. But He does feel His children’s suffering deeply.

Some people suppose happiness is uniquely human, unrelated to God’s nature: as He gave us a body and hunger, which He doesn’t have, He gave us a capacity for happiness, which He also doesn’t have. I believe something radically different—that God wants us happy because He’s happy!

The article you shared repeats the same tired platitudes about joy vs. happiness that Randy addresses in his books. It all sounds spiritual… but writing such as this is based on very little other than frequently repeated half-truths in the Christian world!

The church's false and unbiblical distinctions between happiness and holiness, and between happiness and joy, contradict the “good news of happiness” we’re promised in the Messiah (see Isaiah 52:7, ESV and NASB, two of the most literal translations)!