Does anyone deserve to be happy? Some people believe certain individuals deserve happiness, based on their merit or how much unhappiness they have experienced. I recently watched a young-romance movie, and I saw some of the movie's fans post about how they believed the movie's main heroine deserved to be happy. One of these fans wrote, "This girl was so strong I really admire her, she deserves the whole world." Another fan wrote, "She deserves to live the rest of her life happy." Putting aside the fictional element behind these comments, this does raise a question: Does anyone deserve to be happy? What do people deserve?
There are many opinions on this question, but opinions don't matter when faced with the truth. The truth about whether people deserve to be happy (as well as the truth on similar questions) can be found in the Bible. This book is the word of God (2 Timothy 3:16), and all the words God speaks are always true (Psalm 119:160). It may sound illogical for me to seemingly write "the Bible is true, because the Bible says it is," but I'm saying the Bible is true because it proves itself to be true (the word for something that proves itself is "axiomatic"). Several individuals have demonstrated that the Bible is self-affirming, and you can see some of their videos here, there and here. Based on this premise that the Bible is true (for all of time), then what does the Bible say about what people deserve?
When we talk about people getting what they deserve, we are talking about people being treated fairly (receiving what they earned). Do you get mad when you see people not get what they seemingly deserve? God is the same. He is crushed when He sees people not being treated fairly (Proverbs 11:1), and He desires to right that wrong. Paul, one of God's friends and followers, once wrote that when someone unfairly harmed him God would not let that unfairness stand, (2 Timothy 4:14). God does not let go those who harm others or unfairly cause distress. He has promised He will repay every wrong anyone does (Romans 12:19), and God is not slow in keeping His promises (2 Peter 3:9).
You know, God's promise to repay wrong includes you and I. We have all wronged others (Romans 3:23), and God will repay for what has been done without prejudice (Colossians 3:25). Paul wrote about those who do what is wrong in his letter to the Romans in chapter 2 from verses 1 to 3:
You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?
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| God does not like it when people are hurt or wronged, but He loves it when His friends and followers "carry each other's burdens" (Galatians 6:2) and show love to their neighbor (Mark 12:31). |
Tragically, the Bible does not mince words, when it says what anyone deserves for the wrong they have done. In the true words of the Bible it is clearly written that all of us lived "gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath," (Ephesians 2:3). All people on earth deserve for God to be angry with them. You and I and everyone who lived had a heart that wanted to do bad things and make God angry (Matthew 15:19), and there is no good reason to want to anger God. God is the most loving person to ever exist (1 John 4:16). The God who created every human (and everything) is a loving and kind creator, but all of us have decided to not listen to Him, disrespect Him and refuse to love Him (Isaiah 53:6). All our ignorance, disrespect and even hatred of the God of love deserves only one thing; His righteous anger. Why should those with whom God is angry deserve any happiness?
"If God’s so powerful and so good, how come bad stuff happens?" I’m not going to answer the question until you ask it correctly... Ask me this: "How on earth can a holy and righteous God know what I did and thought and said yesterday and not kill me in my sleep last night?"...Until you ask the question that way, you believe that there are some individuals who, in and of themselves, deserve something other than the wrath of Almighty God.
- Voddie Baucham
If God is rightly mad at us, then we certainly don't deserve to be happy. Considering this, though, if God is the one who created all life and sustains it (Colossians 1:17), and He controls how our lives turn out (Proverbs 21:1-2), then how come God allows anyone to be happy? It is because God is merciful and gracious, giving to His creation what it does not deserve. No one with whom God is angry should deserve anything good from Him, yet God "causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous," (Matthew 5:45). He allows everyone to experience His common-grace (defined as the universal and undeserved goodness of God toward those who disrespect and wrong Him). No one deserves to be happy, but God, full of mercy, grace and love, lets His creation experience happiness.
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| Some people think if they find "the one" then they will be happy, but the only "one" who can truly make anyone happy is their first love, (1 John 4:19), the God who put in their heart His desire to be with them for eternity (Ecclesiastes 3:11). |
There is a reason why God allows anyone to experience happiness, and that is because He wants to lead people to a way that will let them be free from His anger (Romans 2:4). God is not quick to repay us for the wrong we have done (Psalm 103:8), and He gives us the time-length of our whole lives to avoid and never face His incoming righteous anger (Hebrews 9:27). The simple thing anyone alive can do, in order to not receive the anger they deserve, is to turn away from the unjust and unkind desires of their heart (this "turning away" is known as "repenting"). If anyone admits they are deserving of God's anger and repents, then God will keep them away from His anger (Isaiah 45:22, 1 John 1:9). When someone does this, then God takes away their heart that does what angers Him and gives them a beautiful new heart that can love Him and love others (Ezekiel 36:26). No one deserves this, but God gives this opportunity freely. God loves everyone in the world, and He has made a way for them to be free from what they by nature deserve and too instead experience eternal happiness (John 3:16).
You are, You are the answer
The hope and the end to the searching
You are, You are the portrait of grace
You're the One steady thing
In a world that aches
In a world that breaks
- Britt Nicole
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