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)

6392. 'And the land that it is pleasant' means that those in the Lord's kingdom enjoy that happiness. This is clear from the meaning of 'the land' as the Church, thus also the Lord's kingdom, dealt with in 662, 1066, 1067, 1413, 1607, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118, 4447 (the reason why 'the land' has this meaning is that the land of Canaan, to which 'the land' refers in the Word, represented the Lord's kingdom; and it had this representation because the Church had existed there since the most ancient times, 3038, 3481, 3686, 3705, 4447, 4454, 4516, 4517, 5136); and from the meaning of 'that it is pleasant' as the happiness which works of goodness without thought of recompense entail. The reason why it says 'he will see rest that it is good, and the land that it is pleasant', by both of which statements is meant the happiness that exists in the Lord's kingdom, is that 'seeing rest that it is good' has reference to what is celestial or to good, while 'seeing the land that it is pleasant 'has reference to what is spiritual or to truth, both of which are mentioned on account of the marriage of goodness and truth, spoken of in 6343.

[2] To take further this matter of the happiness that exists in the works of goodness without thought of recompense, it should be recognized that very few at the present day know that performing good deeds without thought of recompense is that in which heavenly happiness consists. For people know of no other happiness than that gained from being raised to important positions, being served by others, having an abundance of riches, and leading a life of pleasure. They are profoundly ignorant of the existence above all these things of a happiness that fills a person's inner being, thus of the existence of a heavenly happiness, or of the fact that this happiness is the happiness that genuine charity possesses. Ask the wise at the present day whether they know that this is heavenly happiness. This also explains why many disallow good works, in the belief that it is impossible for anyone to perform them without the intention to earn merit through them. For they do not know that those who are led by the Lord have no greater desire than to perform good works, and that nothing is further from their thought than the earning of merit through them. The new will which the Lord confers on those who are being regenerated brings this attitude of mind with it; for this new will is the Lord's residing with a person.

3470. 'And he took for a wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite' means the wedding to it of natural truth from a source other than genuine truth itself. This is clear from the meaning of 'a wife' as truth wedded to good, dealt with where Sarah and where Rebekah are the subject, 1468, 1901, 2063, 2065, 2172, 2173, 2198, 2507, 2904, 3012, 3013, 3077, here natural truth wedded to the natural good that is the subject here; and from the representation of 'Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite' as truth from a source other than genuine truth itself. The Hittites were one of the upright nations in the land of Canaan, among whom Abraham dwelt and from whom he bought as a grave the cave of Machpelah, Genesis 23:3-end. The Hittites also represent the spiritual Church among the nations in that land, see 2913, 2986. And because that Church does not possess truth that is from the Word the same persons mean truth not derived from genuine truth itself. For a nation which represents a Church also means truth and good, as these exist with that Church, since it is by virtue of truth and good that a Church is a Church. When therefore a Church is spoken of, its truth and good are meant, and vice versa.

[2] The implications of this are that natural good of truth is not spiritual good, that is, it is not the good of faith nor the good of charity until it has been reformed. Natural good comes from parents, as stated immediately above in 3469, but spiritual good comes from the Lord. To receive spiritual good therefore a person has to undergo regeneration. At first, while this is taking place truths from a source other than genuine truth itself are allied to him, such as do not remain permanently with him but merely serve as the means by which genuine truths are brought in. Once these have been brought in, truths that are not genuine are separated. It is akin to the stages through which children pass: At first they learn very many things, including those that are childish - games and so on - not to make them wise but to prepare the way for them to receive the useful things that lead to wisdom. Once they have received the latter the former things are separated, indeed they are put away. Or it is like fruit which at first is filled with sour juice before it is able to receive sweet. The sour juice, which is not the genuine, is the means by which the sweet is brought in. As the latter comes in the former is dispelled.

[3] So it is with the natural part of man's mind when this is being regenerated, for natural good is such that of itself it is unwilling to obey and serve the rational as a slave does his master but wishes to take command. To render it submissive and subservient however it is chastened by means of states of vastation and temptation to the point when its cravings die down. At that point it is moderated by means of an influx from the Lord, by way of the internal man, of the good of faith and charity, even to the point where good acquired by heredity is gradually rooted out and a new good implanted in place of it. Into this new good truths of faith are introduced, like new fibres into the human heart, along which fibres new fluid is borne in, until a new heart has slowly been developed. The truths that are borne in at first cannot come from the genuine fount of truth because evils and falsities exist within the good present previously, which is natural good. Instead they are the kind of seeming truths or appearances of truth that have some affinity with genuine truths, and through which little by little the opportunity and place for those genuine truths to insert themselves is provided. Genuine good is like the blood in blood vessels or the fluid in fibres, bringing truths along and giving them shape. The good which takes shape in this way in the natural or external man is general, structured or joined together so to speak from particular and individual facets of spiritual good coming by way of the rational or internal man from the Lord, who alone forms and creates things anew. This explains why so many times in the Word the Lord is called One who forms and Creator.