How to become happy like God
“I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!” — John 15:11
‘Celebration is at the heart of the way of Christ.’ — Richard Foster
Do you know that God is happy?
So many people imagine God to be a resentful old man who scowls disapprovingly at the world from afar.
Even as Christians, we can secretly view God as generally being pretty unhappy.
After all, surely there’s a lot for Him to be unhappy about: the fallen state of His world, the devastating effects of our sin, the hatred or indifference that so many people feel towards Him.
These things matter to God. He’s not indifferent towards evil, uncaring about injustice or untouched by suffering. You only have to turn a few pages in your Bible to see that this is true.
But none of these things can ever change God’s nature—and His nature is to be happy.
He is happy beyond our ability to understand. He is infinitely, eternally, perfectly joyful. The exceeding delight between His three persons had no start and has no end.
In fact, God is so happy, so satisfied, so full of joy, that He chose to create the world and a people that might share in His happiness. Even though we sinned and severed our relationship with Him, it gave Him great pleasure to bring us back to Himself through His Son Jesus (Ephesians 1:5).
God has always intended for His children—those who have united themselves to Jesus by believing in Him—to share in the infinite depths of His joy.
Learning to experience the joy of Jesus
In John 15, Jesus tells His disciples:
“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!” (John 15:9–11).
Earlier, Jesus has shared with His disciples that by obeying Him out of love for Him, God Himself would come and live within them. They would become one with God, just as Jesus is.
Now, Jesus tells His disciples that He’s shared this with them so that they would experience the completeness of His joy.
Why was Jesus so joyful? Because He had the fullness of God’s joy within Him.
And when you read the Gospels, you can see how this joy overflowed wherever He went.
He celebrated all the Jewish feasts and festivals. He went to weddings and enjoyed going round people's houses for dinner, to the point where the religious leaders accused Him of being "a glutton and a drunkard". Little children always wanted to be around Him, which tells us something of how fun Jesus must have been.
If we follow Jesus, the goal of our lives is to become like Him. And if we want to be like Him, we have to become joyful like He is.
But how do we actually do this? How do we come to experience the complete joy of Jesus?
By practising celebration.
This is how I would define the practice of celebration: doing things that help us experience the fullness of Jesus' life and joy.
Richard Foster writes that "Celebration is at the heart of the way of Christ". It is absolutely central to who Jesus is, and so it should be central to those who follow Him.
The really fun thing about practising celebration is that you can get so creative with it! But to help get us get started, here are three ways we can start training ourselves to become joyful people just like Jesus:
1. Sing and dance
The Bible constantly tells us to sing praise to God. In fact, Hebrews 13:15 instructs us to ‘continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God’. This is basically commanding us to be joyful in God!
When we’re at our most joyful, singing and dancing bursts out of us. But you don’t have to wait for the next wedding or party or gig or night out to do these things. Do them every day! Have a little praise party every morning. Find some songs that help you feel so happy to know Jesus that you can sing throughout the day.
2. Play
Life can so easily get lost in work, admin, tasks, to-do lists, and often feeling like you’re behind. But while we’re no longer children, we have to remember to stay child-like. Jesus says that those who are like little children will inherit His Kingdom. And what do little children do? They play, all the time. They engage their imagination. They have fun by themselves and with friends.
So, have fun. Carve out time—even just half an hour—each day to enjoy yourself and the gifts God has given you. Paint. Dance. Listen to your favourite album. Bake a cake. Read a brilliant book. Learn a new skill. Call up an old friend. Play sport or watch a game with some mates. And whatever you do, enjoy doing it with God, who loves to give good gifts to His children (Matthew 7:11).
3. Say thank you all the time
This is probably the easiest and the most important one: gratitude. Say thank you to God all the time. See a tree that you love? Thank Him for it. Take a bite of some amazing food? Thank Him for it. Enjoy hanging out with a friend? Thank Him for them.
Make it a habit to say thank you to God as much as possible for everything, big and small. Being grateful is one of the most formative practices we can do to become like Jesus, because it’s His will for us: ‘Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you’ (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
As we’re gradually transformed into joyful people through practising celebration, the world around us will start to change as well.
Our joy in Jesus and our consistent cultivation of celebration in our lives can only shine all the brighter in the joylessness of our world today.
Celebration is a subversive act. It laughs and dances in the face of a defeated enemy. It eagerly welcomes in the hurting, the broken, the hopeless to take a seat at the table. It releases us and others from our heavy yokes. It shouts with a smile into the surrounding darkness that God is good, that He has destroyed sin and death, and that He is coming back to make all things new.
Celebration is the very nature of God Himself. May it become our own nature, too.
Love,
Theo