God Makes Christians As Happy As He Is

February 3, 2015  David Murray   2 comments

“God is the only source of real happiness. He does not need anything or anyone to make him happy: even before he made the world, the three persons of the Trinity were completely happy with each other. What God does for Christians is to make them as happy as he is.” Jeremiah Burroughs.*

God is happy! Is that how you think of God? Perhaps you think of Him as cold, detached, disengaged, and stoical. Or worse, maybe you think of Him only as angry, bitter, and malicious. Not really someone you’d want to spend much time with.

But God is happy!

Forever happy

And as Jeremiah Burroughs points out, He’s always been happy. Even before there was a world, there was divine happiness, as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were completely happy with each other.

Shared happiness

And yet, though perfectly happy within themselves, they did not want to keep it to themselves.

Read the rest of this article at HappyChristian.net

  • BSF TL

    Hi David,

    I’m teaching a year-long class thru Ex-Deut. How do you find the right balance between what you’ve posted above and the passages of Leviticus and Numbers where repeated warnings are given, e.g. for the Levites even to peek at the inner components of the tabernacle while taking it down would result in their instant deaths? The tone of these texts is extremely serious & heavy with warnings (Paul agrees: 1 Cor 10). Thanks for any thoughts on how to balance the two :)

    • David Murray

      Good question. It’s a tension we all struggle with. I think the key is to hold them both together. For example in Psalm 100, we are encouraged to come to God with trembling and joy. The Apostle Paul speaks of being sorrowful yet always rejoicing (2 Cor. 6:10). Of course, the Old Testament has more emphasis on the fear and the sorrow, but only to prepare the way for the joy of the full revelation of the Gospel in the New Testament.