Life makes much more sense when we realize that everything we do is calculated to contribute to our happiness. Everything.
The French philosopher Pascal put the idea like this: “All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.”
We are made in God’s image, and God is infinitely happy, and seeks His own happiness, so why should it be different for His creatures? The problem is not seeking happiness, or joy, but HOW we seek it, and WHERE.
The Bible is replete with commands to rejoice. (All quotations are from the ESV.)
Psalm 5:11 Let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy. . .
Psalm 47:1 Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy!
1 Chronicles 16:10 Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!
Psalm 64:10 Let the righteous one rejoice in the Lord and take refuge in him!
Ecclesiastes 9:7 Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.
Zephaniah 3:14 Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Matthew 5:11–12 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Romans 12:12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.
We are not being told so much to SEEK joy as to rejoice. Just do it. And that is because joy is not outside us, or dependent upon our outward circumstances, wealth, or health. Joy is an inward choice we make to be happy in and through and because of God and His grace.
Joy is the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), and grows in the heart of all who seek God. For when we seek God, joy finds us.
“Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Psalm 37:4