Christian Atheist: Pursue Happiness At Any Cost

We're in the middle of a series about Christian Atheism. So far, we've talked about not knowing God and being ashamed of your past/not being sure that God loves you. This week, we're talking about when you believe in God, but pursue happiness at any cost.

(Source)

What makes you happy? Does it make God happy?

Does He always want you to be happy?

This may surprise you, but he doesn't ALWAYS want you to be happy.

God does not want you happy when:

1. It causes you to do something wrong. The example in the book was about the author's daughter. A family friend had a zipline in their yard that was apparently pretty intense. The homeowners made a rule that anyone who rode the zipline had to be at least 15 years old. The author's 4 year old daughter decided to go on the zipline anyway, didn't know how to jump off and went full force into a tree.
2. It's only based on this world. If you toss a fish onto the floor and it starts flopping around, it isn't happy. Even if you offer the fish $1 million, alcohol, or anything else, it still won't be happy. Why? Because it was made for the water. The same goes for us. We are not made for the Earth, we are made for Heaven.

^15-17Don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.
~1 John 2 (The Message)

The more you fall in love with God, the less the things of this world will pull on you and draw you into them. When you lower your expectations of this world and pursue God instead, then you can be more happy.

God wants so much more than happiness. Can you believe that? He doesn't always answer you, but He wants to bless you, to give you joy that's overflowing. Don't settle for second class when God offers you first class.