Does God want us to be "happy" or holy?

Posted by Caspian.
December 3, 2009 at 11:00pm

.This question has supporters on both sides, more so on the "Happy" or "Both" side I believe.

But what does the word of God tell us about this? After all that is what truly matters. So where does the Bible give us an example of this, or insite into to subject.

Well, let us go back to the beginning(literally!); the first two humans, Adam, and Eve. But you may be thinking, "What do they have to do with it? People refer to them bringing sin into the world not holiness or happiness! But what else can we pull from this oft told story?

First, lets get some back ground shall we? God created a perfect world and plopped Adam and Eve into it. But not just any random place, they were in the garden of eden! They walked with God, talked with him, and even had their pick of fruit! WOW~ They had everything they need to be "happy"! And they were I believe...for a time. But what happened to them? Why can't the story just say and God let them eat of every tree in the garden and they were Joyful?

I would not be out of line here I believe to interject the reason the story doesn't read, and Adam and Eve ate of every tree and lived happily ever after, was because God valued their holiness he told them NOT to eat of the tree "Of the knowledge of God and evil", not because he didn't want them to have the happiness of eating of every tree, but because he valued their holiness higher. It took priority, as they would no longer be holy after eating of the tree.

Now some may say "Dude, that was TOTALLY a "far out" example. Come on, its Adam and Eve we are talking about, things were different back then." Or perhaps even "That example had nothing to do with your lame point, joy killer!"

*chuckles*

Of course I disagree(why would I have posted otherwise!) but sure, why don't we look at a different situation. Once again old Testament(but don't worry, I didn't chose Cain and Able THOUGH! I could have ;))
Lets' look at the life of a prophet of God, they should be a good example one way or the other right? Right! Jonah is a man we don't know much about, but we do know he had a temper, and was not always into seeing people go unpunished. : But what else do we learn from his story? Well once again lets start at the beginning what was the surrounding info? To start with, he was a prophet ( I already said that once), so he went about giving people God's messages, mostly warnings I believe as that was a prophets typical message. So with that little tid bit of background lets plunge in:)

God commanded Jonah to go to the Ninevites(a sinful people very hated and despised). This was NOT something that would be a "happy" thing to do, nor would it give Jonah physical gain, I believe he possibly feared for his life in going there. People often aren't "to big" on someone coming up to them and saying "Repent sinners, or the Lord God's judgment will wipe you out!".At least last time I checked ;). Now imagine doing that to thirty thousand people~ You get the picture Jonah had going through his mind :C

Now for one, at face value, would that make you feel happy? NO! I'd be terrified of the people and resistant to God. So what did Jonah do stuck with a tricky situation, between the proverbial "rock" and God! Not exactly the most comfortable circumstance. So he....Fled! He ran for his life!

But~ Lets look a little deeper at the key reason why he fled. Was he going to be happy going to Nineveh? NO. Would he be happier/ more comfortable going and relaxing on the sand somewhere? Yes! Away from those sinful people, and the followers of God asking what God wanted them to do(that would be very akward). Now you might say I over simplified this but I would ask you to bear with me.

So back on Jonah's tale, he fled to Tarshish in his thinking, away from God's command and perhaps he was also looking forward to being away from the people(I would be!) Now we all know what happened, God caused a storm to rise up, and long story short Jonah ended up in a "large aquatic animal":P. But why? If God wanted him to be happy, wouldn't it have been better to let Jonah go? I don't think God was like "Darn that Jonah, now he's gonna pay, Him V ME. We'll see he cries uncle first! I get this giant animal to get him! HA! That'll show him."

NoNo!,
I don't think this was what was happening at all! God cared about Jonah, and that is why he chose what he did. He valued Jonah's holiness/obedience(I think they go hand in hand) higher than Jonah's sinful "happiness" so he brought the fish in to discipline him, and hopefully teach him a lesson. Why? Because rather than having Jonah live his life "Hunky Dorry" he was calling him to holiness, as I believe God calls us all. God cares that you are holy and following after him, rather than you being happy. I hope this has shown you good reasons why I believe this to be true.