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.

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

1153. That 'the sons of Gomer' also means those who possessed external worship, but an external worship derived from that which existed with the nation Gomer, follows from what has been stated and shown several times already about the meaning of 'sons', as well as from the fact that Gomer is one of those nations which possessed external worship corresponding to internal. Seven nations which possessed such worship are mentioned by name in the previous verse, and seven again, called 'the sons of Gomer and of Javan', in this. The specific differences however between one nation and another cannot be stated, as only their names are given here. In the Prophets however when the subject is specifically this or that type of Church-worship the differences can be established. In general all variations of external worship, as also of internal, arise according to the adoration of the Lord in the worship, and the adoration is according to the love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour that exist there. For it is within love that the Lord is present, and thus within worship. The differences of worship therefore existing among the nations mentioned here depend on the nature of His presence within.

[2] To make it easier to talk about how types of worship differ and how they did so in the Ancient Church among various nations, let it be realized that all true worship consists in adoration of the Lord. Adoration of the Lord consists in being humble; and being humble consists in the self-acknowledgement that with oneself there is nothing living and nothing good, but that with oneself everything is dead, indeed corpse-like. Being humble also consists in the acknowledgement that everything living and everything good come from the Lord. The more a person acknowledges these things not just with the lips but in his heart, the more humility he has; and consequently the more adoration - which is true worship - and the more love and charity, and the more happiness. The first contains the second, and they are so linked together as to be inseparable. This shows what these differences of worship are and the nature of them.

[3] Those who are mentioned here and are called 'the sons of Gomer and of Javan' are people who likewise possessed external worship corresponding to internal, but it was somewhat more remote than that of the people mentioned in the previous verse. This also is why they are called 'sons'. Generations descending one after another, or derivatives, here progress from what is interior towards things that are exterior. The more someone relies on the senses, the more exterior he becomes, and consequently becomes further removed from true worship of the Lord. For when it is more concerned with the world, the body, and the earth, and less with the spirit, it consequently becomes more remote. Because these people called the sons of Gomer and of Javan relied more on the senses, they focused worship even more on external things than those referred to as their parents and cousins had done. Consequently they form a second group here.

4319. Much experience has shown me that no man or spirit, or any angel, thinks, says, or does anything at all from himself, but from others. Nor are these others themselves the source of anything they think, say, or do but others again, and so on with these. Thus all, corporately and individually, think, speak, and act from the First Source of life, that is, from the Lord, no matter how completely they seem to do so independently, by themselves. This has often been shown to spirits who had believed during their lifetime, and had convinced themselves of the idea, that nothing lay outside themselves, that is, the whole source of their thought, speech, and activity lay within themselves and their own souls in which life has been implanted and shows itself. They have also been shown through actual experiences (such as one can have in the next life but are not possible in the world) that the source of evil people's thought, will, and action is hell, and the source of good people's is heaven, that is, the Lord through heaven; yet for all that, their evil or else their good seems to begin within those people themselves. This is something Christians know from teaching drawn from the Word, that is to say, the teaching that all evil comes from the devil and all good from the Lord. Yet there are few who believe it. And because they do not believe it they make their own the evils which they think, will, and do. They do not however make any good their own, for people who believe that the source of the good they do lies within themselves lay claim to it and attribute it to themselves, and in so doing place merit in it. They also know from what is taught in the Church that no one is able independently, by himself, to do anything good, insomuch that whatever originates in himself and in his proprium is evil, no matter how much it may seem to be good. This also few people believe, even though it is the truth.

[2] Evil people who have convinced themselves of the idea that they live independently by themselves, and therefore that whatever they think, will, and do begins in themselves, have declared, when shown that the truth of the matter is exactly as doctrine teaches, their readiness to believe it. But they have been told that knowing does not amount to believing, and that believing is something internal and cannot exist except within the affection for good and truth, and therefore can exist only with those who are governed by the good of charity towards the neighbour. Those same spirits, being evil ones, insisted that they were ready to believe it because they had seen it. But they were subjected to examination in a way commonly experienced in the next life, namely that of close inspection by angels. When they were inspected the upper part of their heads seemed to have been removed and their brains to be rough and hairy and also full of darkness. This showed the inner nature of people whose faith is no more than knowledge and not true faith, and that knowing something does not amount to believing it. For the heads of those who know and also believe look like human heads, and their brains look well-ordered, white, and shining, since heavenly light is received by them. But with those who merely know and imagine that in knowing they therefore believe, when in fact they do not believe because they lead an evil life, heavenly light is not received, nor consequently intelligence and wisdom which are present within that light. For this reason when they approach angelic communities, that is, heavenly light, it turns for them into darkness. This is why their brains are seen to be full of darkness.