Why Happiness Escapes Us

Researchers have consistently ranked Scandinavians as the happiest people on Earth. But even if you aren’t Scandinavian, you can still find happiness.

According to the Bible, if you know God and discover His plan for your life, you will find the happiness you’re searching for. It doesn’t come from seeking to be happy in and of itself. It comes from knowing and seeking the God who created you and discovering His plan and purpose for your life.

C. S. Lewis said this about happiness: “God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food for our spirits were designed to feed on. . . . God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”

The Bible says that if you hunger and thirst after righteousness, then you will be happy. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” The word blessed also can be translated “happy.”

This world will promise us happiness, but it simply won’t deliver. That’s because this fleeting happiness that we experience ebbs and flows. It comes and goes, depending on what our life is like.

If things are going reasonably well, then we are fairly happy. But the moment things get difficult, we are no longer happy. And that is not real happiness.

Writing in a Time magazine article, Gregg Easterbrook said, “Love, friendship, family, respect, a place in the community, the belief that your life has purpose—those are the essentials of human fulfillment, and they cannot be purchased with cash.”

Happiness is never something we should seek directly, according to the Scriptures. It is always the result of seeking something else. If you seek holiness, then you will find happiness as a result.