God's Plan and Promises for His PeopleExemplo

God has a plan for our happiness, and He makes many promises that help us fit into His plan. In His plan, happiness does not consist of things, or places, or positions. It consists of being rightly related to God. Happiness is not our goal but a pleasant by-product when God is our goal.

David hit the happiness nail on the head when he observed, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity" (Ps. 32:1, 2).

In the Bible, the words "happy" and "blessed" mean the same. They are used interchangeably. When God says someone is blessed, He doesn't necessarily mean that they have great wealth, but they have great happiness. Since happiness is a by-product of our relationship with God, we must explore happiness in relation to Him. What is God's plan?

Here it is. God plans to make us supremely happy by involving Himself in our lives and presenting Himself as the supreme goal of our lives.

It's easy to be happy when things are going our way. But how can we happy when they're not? Is it possible to see God's involvement in our lives when distress comes to us? Absolutely. Happiness is not found in freedom from trouble but in knowing that God involves Himself in our lives during our struggles. Here are three areas that clearly show this.

First, the Bible says happiness comes to us when we are reproached for the sake of the Lord. It sounds pretty strange, doesn't it, that we would be happy when someone reproves us, accuses us, shames us because of our faith in Christ? But read what God's Word says, "If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you" (I Pet. 4:14).

Jesus said, "Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven" (Luke 6:22,23).

None of us relishes such treatment, but it's better to remain true to Christ than to cave in to the pressures of the world and be robbed of our eternal reward. While we don't find such reproaches enjoyable, we do find ourselves happy to be counted worthy by the Lord to be His ambassadors to the world.