JOY-PURSUIT OF

If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased

C.S. Lewis

The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses, Eerdmans, 1965, p. 1-2.

Jesus knew that all mankind were in the pursuit of happiness. He has directed them in the true way to it, and He tells them what they must become in order to be blessed and happy.

Jonathan Edwards

The Works of Jonathan Edwards, v. 2, Used by Permission, Banner of Truth, p. 905.

[This desire for happiness is] insuperable,…never can be changed…never can be overcome, or in any way abated. Young and old love happiness alike, and good and bad, wise and unwise.

Jonathan Edwards

Safety, Fullness and Sweet Refreshment to be Found in Christ, Jonathan Edwards on Knowing Christ.

They certainly are the wisest men that do those things that make the most for their happiness, and this in effect is acknowledged by all men in the world, for there is no man upon the earth who isn’t earnestly seeking after happiness, and it appears abundantly by the variety of ways they so vigorously seek it.

Jonathan Edwards

Christian Happiness, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Sermons and Discourses 1720-1723.

God created man for nothing else but happiness. He created him only that He might communicate happiness to him.

Jonathan Edwards

Jesus warns us that in spending our lives we should be wise shoppers, guarding our hearts against the false advertisements of this world. For whatever we value most in life becomes our "treasure." And our treasure becomes our hope. In turn, our hope determines how we act, since we always spend our lives on whatever we think will make us happy.

Scott Hafemann

The God of Promise and the Life of Faith. Crossway Books, 2001, p. 169.

Where your pleasure is, there is your treasure; Where your treasure is, there is your heart; Where your heart is, there is your happiness.

Augustine

He who lays up treasures on earth spends his life backing away from his treasures. To him, death is loss. He who lays up treasures in heaven looks forward to eternity; he's moving daily toward his treasures. To him, death is gain. He who spends his life moving toward his treasures has reason to rejoice. Are you despairing or rejoicing?

Randy Alcorn

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 to those who hang themselves.

Blaise Pascal

Pascal’s Pensees, Thought #425, E.P. Dutton, 1958, p. 113.

Let it not be imagined that the life of a good Christian must be a life of melancholy and gloominess; for he only resigns some pleasures to enjoy others infinitely better.

Blaise Pascal

Happiness is the primary object of human pursuit. The desire for happiness, urges our weary steps in the pilgrimage of life.

D.R. Thomason

Fashionable Amusements, 1831.

We all desire to be happy. That is something that is innate in human nature; nobody wants to be miserable, though I am aware of the fact that there are people who seem to enjoy being miserable and some who seem to find their happiness in being unhappy!

Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Spiritual Depression – Its Causes and its Cures, 1965, p. 109, Used by Permission from Elizabeth Catherwood (daughter).

Those that look to be happy must first look to be holy.

Richard Sibbes

A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 158.

True joy comes only from God and He shares this joy with those who walk in fellowship with Him.

Jerry Bridges

The single most important principle I ever discovered is this: the goal or purpose of the Christian is precisely the pursuit of happiness – in God. The reason for this is that there is no greater way to glorify God than to find in Him the happiness that my soul so desperately craves.

Sam Storms

One of the worst injustices the church has perpetuated against its members is proclaiming a message of the evil of desire. God created us with a longing to be thrilled, hungry for the joy of being fascinated. Yet we have told people to stop wanting and to stop yearning; we’ve urged them to ignore, suppress, or anesthetize their desire for happiness. And, if such teachings should fail, we have worked hard to make them feel the sting of guilt and shame. All this will do is drive passion underground, so to speak, only to have it erupt at some moment of weakness when temptation offers a fleeting fulfillment.

Sam Storms

I’m a hedonist because I believe it is impossible to desire pleasure too much. But I’m a Christian hedonist because I believe the pleasure we cannot desire too much is pleasure in God and all that He is for us in Jesus.

Sam Storms
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p.27. www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.

Your heart will always be drawn to whatever brings it greatest joy. Don’t apologize for it. This isn’t the result of poor nurture or genetic error or inadequate education. Far less is it the fruit of sin. God created you with a “joy meter” in your soul, such that you invariably choose whatever options in life register most loudly and most deeply. You may be emotionally bruised, perhaps black and blue, from beating up on yourself for wanting to feel good or for wanting to experience happiness and joy. Stop it! Don’t repent.

Sam Storms
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p.138-139. www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.

Your choice isn’t whether to passionately seek pleasure. Trust me, you do. Your only option is where you’ll look or whom you’ll love or whose offer of pleasure you’ll accept. I hardly need remind you, or perhaps I do, that the world will do everything in its power and employ whatever means necessary and spare no expense to capture the allegiance of your heart.

Sam Storms
One Thing, Christian Focus, © Enjoying God Ministries, 2004, p.17. www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.

The reason we resist God’s laws and pursue our own sinful strategies is because we believe that we can do better at securing our happiness than God can.

Sam Storms
Integrity, November 6, 2006, www.enjoyinggodministries.com. Used by Permission.

Christian Hedonism is a philosophy of life built on the following five convictions:

1. The longing to be happy is a universal human experience, and it is good, not sinful.

2. We should never try to deny or resist our longings to be happy, as though it were a bad impulse. Instead we should seek to intensify this longing and nourish it with whatever will provide the deepest and most enduring satisfaction.

3. The deepest and most enduring happiness is found only in God. Not from God, but in God.

4. The happiness we find in God reaches its consummation when it is shared with others in the manifold ways of love.

5. To the extent we try to abandon the pursuit of our own pleasure, we fail to honor God and love people. Or, to put it positively: the pursuit of pleasure is a necessary part of all worship and virtue. That is, the chief end of man is to glorify God BY enjoying Him forever.

John Piper

Desiring God, 1996, p. 23, Used by Permission, www.desiringGod.org.

The pursuit of our interest and our happiness is never above God’s, but always in God’s. The most precious truth in the Bible is that God’s greatest interest is to glorify the wealth of His grace by making sinners happy in Him… Therefore Christian Hedonists do not put their happiness above God’s glory when they pursue their Happiness in Him.

John Piper

Desiring God, 1996, p. 137, Used by Permission, www.desiringGod.org.

My quest for happiness is now nothing other than a quest for God. And He has been found in Jesus Christ.

John Piper

Loving God as Yourself – Part 2, May 7, 1995, www.DesiringGod.org. Used by Permission.

It is only through God’s Holy Spirit that we can find true joy (Psalm 51:11-12; Galatians 5:22; 1 Thessalonians 1:6). We can do nothing apart from the power of God (2 Corinthians 12:10, 13:4). Indeed, the harder we try to be joyful through our own efforts, the more miserable we can become. Rest in the Lord’s arms (Matthew 11:28-30) and seek His face through prayer and Scripture. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).

Author Unknown
Got Questions? www.GotQuestions.org. Used by Permission.