God’s First Wish

A psychiatrist’s patient complained to him that her misery was barely improving after many months of therapy. She felt that the treatment was not effective and could not make her happy. “Happy?” he answered. “We’ll be satisfied if we can make you reasonably unhappy.” I believe the greatest part of the human race functions in a reasonable unhappiness. But God wants more for His children; our “quiet desperation” will not satisfy Him.

God’s first wish for us, however, is not our happiness; it is our life. Jesus said, “I come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” He died for our life-choking sin, and arose from the dead to destroy our death. Our everlasting life is His first priority. You don’t just play the fiddle to cheer up a drowning man. Imagine a doctor telling a bloodied and barely conscious trauma patient, “Here now, can we have a smile?”

Though our salvation is paramount with Him, God gave so much for us, He certainly wants us to be happy.  As Paul tells us, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”

On our end, how shall we not try to receive all things, seeing that He spared not His own Son.

Thankfulness is an essential element of happiness. If we feel we have nothing to be thankful for, we are mistaken. We can begin by giving thanks for what Jesus did for us on the cross. Let’s give thanks for Christ Himself living in our hearts. He is a gift that can engage our gratitude for all eternity. Giving thanks for anything else is giving thanks for His lesser gifts. And His lesser gifts are unimaginably magnificent.