Does God want us to be happy? What does the Bible say about happiness?

“Happiness” may seem like a passing thing, and hardly the ultimate goal in most belief systems. In fact, though, it is the Lord’s greatest goal for us: He wants us to be happy. If we allow it, He will lead and guide us to be as happy as we are able to be.

The whole reason the Lord created us was so that he could love us, and what else but happiness do you wish for someone you love? But the happiness the Lord wants for us is not the passing joy of satisfying our bodily desires but the exquisite eternal joy of conjunction with the Lord and true love of the neighbor, things that are harder to see and harder to attain but ultimately far more delightful.

Swedenborg distinguishes heaven’s happiness from worldly happiness of satisfying our bodily desires. In heaven, all happiness is felt from loving the Lord and being of use, living for the sake of others. Everything the Lord does is part of his attempt to lead us to that state, and in everything that happens to us - even the things that are the most tragic on the natural level - he provides opportunities for us to move toward that state.

In Arcana Coelestia 6392, there's this: "...performing good deeds without thought of recompense is that in which heavenly happiness consists." A couple of sentences later, there's another key statement -- i.e. that this real love of the neighbor has to be rooted in a "new will" in us, a will that can only be implanted by the Lord when we make room for it, and seek it.

In the American Declaration of Independence, the "pursuit of happiness" is one of the 3 enumerated inalienable rights that our Creator endows us with. Certainly, the Lord wants our happiness, and wants us to pursue it. In a way, though, if we pursue it directly, externally, we will probably not get it. If we pursue happiness for others, we will be making our minds open and ready for that new will. (See Arcana Coelestia 454 for more about this.)

The Lord also leaves us in freedom. We can reject his efforts and turn away if we choose to, and while that choice may seem to us to lead toward happiness, it's a passing, low-level happiness that is ultimately only a shadow of the joy he desires for us. However, people in hell are "happy" being there - at least as happy as they CAN be - because the life there matches the self-centered love they cultivated while on earth. If people in hell could be lifted up to heaven, they would feel tormented.

From Psalm 65:9-13:

Thou visitest the earth, and blessest it; thou makest it very plenteous.

The river of God is full of water: thou preparest their corn, for so thou providest for the earth.

Thou waterest her furrows; thou sendest rain into the little valleys thereof; thou makest it soft with the drops of rain, and blessest the increase of it.

Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy clouds drop fatness.

They shall drop upon the dwellings of the wilderness; and the little hills shall rejoice on every side.

The folds shall be full of sheep; the valleys also shall stand so thick with corn, that they shall laugh and sing.

From John 15:11:

I have told you these things so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.

(参照: Arcana Coelestia 1153 [2]; Divine Providence 37)

222. To the above shall be added some particulars from the Arcana Coelestia (n. 9127): "He who knows nothing of the internal or spiritual sense of the Word, knows no other than that 'flesh and blood,' when they are mentioned in the Word, mean flesh and blood. But in the internal or spiritual sense, it does not treat of the life of the body, but of the life of man's soul, that is, of his spiritual life, which he is to live to eternity. This life is described in the literal sense of the Word, by things which belong to the life of the body, that is, by 'flesh and blood'; and as the spiritual life of man subsists by the good of love and the truth of faith, therefore in the internal sense of the Word the good of love is meant by 'flesh,' and the truth of faith by 'blood.' These are understood by 'flesh and blood,' and by 'bread and wine,' in heaven; for 'bread' means altogether the same there as 'flesh,' and 'wine' as 'blood.' They who are not spiritual men, do not apprehend this; let such abide therefore in their own faith, only believing that in the Holy Supper, and in the Word, there is holiness, because they are from the Lord, although they may not know where that holiness resides. On the other hand, let those who are endowed with interior perception, consider whether 'flesh' means flesh, and 'blood,' blood, in the following passages. In the Apocalypse:

I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a great voice, saying unto all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, come and gather yourselves together to the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of Kings, and the flesh of commanders of thousands, and the flesh of the mighty, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all, free and bond, small and great (19:17, 18).

Who can understand these words, unless he knows what 'flesh,' 'kings,' 'commanders of thousands,' 'the mighty,' 'horses,' 'them that sit on them,' and 'freemen' and 'bondmen,' signify in the internal sense? And in Ezekiel:

Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Say to every bird of heaven, and to every beast of the field, Gather yourselves together and come; gather yourselves together from every side to My sacrifice that I sacrifice for you, a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh and drink blood; ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth; and ye shall eat fat to satiety, and drink blood even to drunkenness, of My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you: thus shall ye be satisfied at My table, with horse and chariot, with the mighty, and with every man of war; thus will I give My glory among the nations (39:17-21).

This passage treats of the calling together of all to the kingdom of the Lord, and in particular of the establishment of the church with the Gentiles; and 'eating flesh and drinking blood,' signify to appropriate to themselves Divine good and Divine truth, thus the holiness which proceeds from the Lord's Divine Human. Who cannot see, that 'flesh' does not here mean flesh; nor 'blood,' blood; as when it said, that 'they should eat the flesh of the mighty,' and 'drink the blood of the princes of the earth'; and that 'they should drink blood even to drunkenness'; also that 'they should be satisfied with horses, with chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war'? What 'the birds of heaven' and 'the beasts of the field' signify in the spiritual sense, may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell (n. 110and the notes). Let us now consider what the Lord said concerning His flesh and His blood, in John:

The bread which I will give, is My flesh. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day; for My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood, dwelleth in Me, and I in him. This is the bread which came down from heaven (John 6:50-58).

'The flesh' of the Lord is the Divine good, and His 'blood,' the Divine truth, each from Him, is evident, because these nourish the spiritual life of man; hence it is said, 'My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed,' and as man is conjoined to the Lord by the Divine good and truth, it is also said, 'Whoso eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life'; and, 'He dwelleth in Me and I in him'; and in the former part of the chapter:

Labor not for the food which perisheth, but for that food which endureth to eternal life (John 6:27).

'To abide in the Lord' is to be in love to Him, the Lord Himself teaches in John (15:2-12)".