“Man’s Happiness is God Himself”

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Heavenly Notes
JacyJoypals
June 2009

“Because your loving-kindness is better than life, My lips will praise You.”  Psalm 63:3

The truth of God’s Word teaches us that Christ and Christ alone, is “better than life.”  For believers, the thought of life without Christ is unbearable and impossible to conceive.  He is our life, our hope, our salvation and we desire Him more than even life itself.   His love, His grace, His loving-kindness to us poor, wretched, miserable creatures is beyond comprehension and we rejoice in His mercy and love for us in giving us the abundant life.  He is our joy and happiness and in Him we “live and move and have our being.” 

Christ is our everything and we want Him more than life itself but, He has placed us in this world to accomplish His purposes and while living in the world, in our bodies that have not been redeemed from sin, we lust and covet those things of the world.  In other words, we place our idols of the heart above our allegiance and obedience to Christ.  We want the world, our lusts, and Christ too.  We want to choose what tickles us and makes us “feel good” or gives us some feeling of control, or pleasure, or false sense of happiness.  We want to heap upon ourselves those things that are “not convenient” or good for us.  We want to trust in “our trusting,” “our wisdom,” “our sense of what is right and good,” and not in the sovereign leading hand of God in our lives.  Thus, we make up little idols of “happiness” or “joy” rather than delighting in the joy of the Lord and finding our true happiness, contentment and rest in Him.  It is easy to disobey, isn’t it?  God clearly tell us to “follow Him” and we say “lead on O Christ” and then go our own way, in our own path, doing what is “right in our own eyes” and forsaking the Lord’s good providence and help.  God is our “delight” and we should “delight to do God’s will,” not our own and true happiness in this life is bound up in obedience and love of Christ, not “doing” our own will, but doing His will, which brings “sweet fellowship with the Father” and hope, strength and a “joy unspeakable and full of glory.” 

Living for Christ “first” and loving Him above all else is where our true happiness, joy, peace and rest is and those things He has given us for our creature comforts and blessings are because of His loving-kindness, mercy and love and we are to show our thankfulness to Him even more by obedience and our desire for Him above all else. He truly is “our happiness.”  There is no true happiness, joy or contentment without Christ.  In fact, man/woman without Christ is “most miserable” in this life and faces an eternity of torment without Him.  Augustine is correct in saying that “man’s happiness is God Himself.”  When we see Him face-to-face, our happiness will be complete, our joy will be full.  We desire to see that day and the shadow and mirror reflection will fade away and along with it, the love of other things with the weak and beggarly elements of happiness.  True love, true joy awaits us and so we desire that day that is “better than life” in His presence forevermore.  Where is our heart?  Do we desire that day?  I surely hope that all of us who call upon Him in truth do love Him more than life itself and that they find that “man’s happiness is God Himself.”

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Excerpt from jacyjoypals, ReformedWomen Bible-Book Study Summary Comments, “Idols of the Heart”