I recently read Randy Alcorn’s Happiness. It’s amazing that as I’ve read about the happiness of God in his book, the same thought was reinforced by J.I. Packer Your Father Loves You. In Happiness, Alcorn quotes Jonathan Edwards who believed in “temperance with what’s secondary but not what’s primary. God is primary. We can’t get too much of God; therefore, we can’t be too happy in God.” Then he goes on to ask: “What does my suffering do for me? It makes me see how implausible it is that I can find true happiness outside of God. When what I once leaned on for happiness crumbles to dust, the way is cleared for me to see that God still stands and is the one solid foundation on which to build my life and happiness. When we meet Jesus face to face, behold his nail scarred hands reaching out to us, see the look in his eyes when he says, ‘Enter into your Master’s happiness,’ we will gain a new perspective on this life: the benefits of following Jesus always far outweighed the costs – each and every time.”
Then J.I. Packer in the September 7th reading says:
“By giving his love to us, God has voluntarily bound up his own final happiness with ours. He has in effect resolved that henceforth for all eternity his happiness shall be conditional on ours. Thus God saves not only for his glory but also for his gladness!”
It’s an amazing thought to think about: how happy we’ll be forever in heaven. Now our happiness is incomplete because we still suffer, but then it will be eternal and complete in the presence of Jesus. O Happy Day!
Phyllis Wallin