Psalm 37:4
Delight thyself also in the Lord.
“The teaching of these words must seem very surprising to those who are strangers to vital godliness, but to the sincere believer it is only the inculcation of a recognized truth. The life of the believer is here described as a delight in God, and we are thus certified of the great fact that true religion overflows with happiness and joy. Ungodly persons and mere professors never look upon religion as a joyful thing; to them it is service, duty, or necessity, but never pleasure or delight. If they attend to religion at all, it is either that they may gain thereby, or else because they dare not do otherwise. The thought of delight in religion is so strange to most men, that no two words in their language stand further apart than 'holiness' and 'delight.' But believers who know Christ, understand that delight and faith are so blessedly united, that the gates of hell cannot prevail to separate them... We fear not God because of any compulsion; our faith is no fetter, our profession is no bondage, we are not dragged to holiness, nor driven to duty. No, our piety is our pleasure, our hope is our happiness, our duty is our delight." -- Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening
If the modern evangelical knows anything, he knows that God is more concerned with our holiness than our happiness. This, in one sense, is true. Holiness is a higher priority than happiness, however, they are not mutually exclusive. In other words, it is not as though God has made the world in such a way as to force us to choose between being holy or being happy. If you aim at holiness, you get happiness. In fact, you get it to the brim, pressed down and flowing over. If you aim at happiness, you will not get any holiness and whatever happiness you do get won't be much and it won't last long.
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