Devotionals

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I asked this question of an adult Sunday school class recently, and I could sense the discomfort like a dog smells fear. Answers ranged from “My family’s salvation” to “God’s glory.” I teased them about whether they would voice the same wants were they not in Sunday school. Maybe then the answers would be “A new car” or “A better job” or “A new Sunday school teacher.” Whether it was out of a desire to not appear unspiritual or just never came to mind, the answer I was looking for, “Happiness,” never came out.
I also asked the all-time seemingly insoluble question: no, not “What do women want?” but “What does God want?” Again, the answers were varied: “Repentance.” “Praise.” “Obedience.” All good answers, but they miss out on His ultimate desire: Happiness, both for Himself and His creatures. Shocking, maybe; scriptural, yes.
Samuel Butler said, “All of the animals excepting man know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.” Blaise Pascal wrote, “All men seek happiness. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.” The Declara-tion of Independence goads us to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” God says, “I have richly provided you with everything for your enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17, para.).
So, it doesn’t seem so bad to seek pleasure as our ultimate goal after all. Besides, God Himself has pleasure as His ultimate goal. Surprising? Hear the Psalmist: “May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works.” (Psalm 104.31). We desire pleasure; God desires pleasure. Sounds like a win-win situation, doesn’t it?
The problem is that God’s paths and our paths to pleasure do not go in the same direction. In fact, our paths are twisted dead ends: “Those who turn to crooked ways the LORD will banish with the evildoers” (Psalm 125:5). “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12). God’s path is contrasted with man’s: “The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble” (Proverbs 4:18, 19). In other words, following God’s prescriptions for pleasure and happiness lead to full-ness, whereas the path of the world is uncertain and treacherous.
Most of us have “felt needs,” things we think we need. We are like little children who see what they want, what they think will make them happy, and, when refused, say, “But I need it!” They have not yet learned the difference between needs and wants. They are not satisfied with what they have because it doesn’t meet their true needs. They stumble in the dark and don’t know why.
In a nutshell, material things don’t satisfy, be they people, playthings, assets or applause. As we will later see, these things are neither trustworthy or permanent. Happiness lasts as long as they last. Why else are we saddened when we lose them?
God offers the prescription for the empty heart and empty hands: “And my God will meet all your needs according to His glo-rious riches in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). God wants us to set our sights higher than this world. Jesus said to his worried lis-teners, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things (food, drink, clothing) will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33). God is happy when we seek Him and it is His pleasure to give us what we need when we seek our pleasure in Him. Psalm 37:4: “Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”
God’s complaint is not that we are seeking happiness, but that we are not desiring the best: Him! Note his words: “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jeremiah 2:13). They forsook God’s everlast-ing satisfaction for their own temporary pursuits.
In the next few weeks, we will look at some of these empty cisterns as we play a spiritual game of “Trivial Pursuit.”

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