That means it’s also an essential part of God’s nature-God is joy. Joy is one of the fruits of God’s spirit, what He produces in a person (Gal. It’s used as a verb throughout the minor prophets, and Jesus spends a significant chunk of time during His final Passover night talking about it (John 15). Music is often spoken of as an expression of joy in the bible (I Sam.
The Psalms and Proverbs are full of direction on joy. Joy, rejoice, and similar words are used literally hundreds of times in the bible. There’s something else often used synonymously with happiness that the bible says we should pursue, and that we’ll find if we are utilizing God’s spirit. Related: Is Ingratitude the Root of Most Sin? The case for joy in the bible But what does “blessed” mean in this case? What does it feel like?
So God’s word tells us that we will be blessed, or happy, if we’re seeking Him and following His commandments. 3:14 – But even if you should suffer for righteousness’s sake, you are blessed (happy)
The bible is chock-full of verses that clearly lay out a path for pursuing happiness: For instance, all of the Beatitudes could be read as “Happy are…” (Matt. It also can be translated either way, so while it’s mostly translated “blessed” you could accurately translate “happy”. This is used a ton, particularly throughout Psalms and Proverbs.Īdditionally, makarios (G3107) is used heavily in the gospels. In the Old Testament this is mostly derived from the root word esher, meaning happiness or blessed (H835 it’s translated “happy” and “blessed” about equally). One aspect of happiness that the bible does talk about is synonymous with God’s blessing. 12), and the bible reiterates this again and again.
Solomon was clear that pursuing these things was pointless vanity (Eccl. And it’s NOT the pursuit of materialism, humanism, and hedonism (II Tim. It does not say “the pursuit of pleasure”. It’s worth just getting this out of the way to begin with: pursuing happiness does NOT mean pursuing your own desires at the expense of others, or at odds with God’s way. Related: Comparison & Envy: the Key to Unhappiness What does the bible say about happiness? So our founding fathers thought that this was a core tenet of humanity, but is the pursuit of happiness a biblical principle as well? I love the quote from this article, which sums it up by saying that “happiness was about an individual’s contribution to society rather than pursuits of self-gratification”. Today the words “happy” or “happiness” have become watered down, speaking more to a temporary mood or shallow state of being.īut when that sentence was written, the phrase signified a combination of fulfillment, contentment, self-worth, dignity, and community or civic duty. But it’s not a world that our founding fathers would even recognize. We live in a world today that is obsessed with the pursuit of happiness. But the phrase “the pursuit of happiness” doesn’t have the same meaning to us today as it did to the patriots in 1776. to stay alive) and right to liberty (a.k.a. The writers believed that this was self-evident, meaning that it was completely obvious and didn’t need explanation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. The beginning of the Declaration of Independence makes an interesting statement.