Lesson for March 1, 2026

Problem-Solving Devices

#9 – Sharing the Happiness of God

Sharing the happiness of God is having permanent contentment as your constant companion. It is actually God’s own perfect happiness that He shares with advancing believers as a grace gift. Sharing God’s happiness is obtained only by consistently learning, believing, and applying the Word of God over a period of time. The more time you log under the power and the control of God the Holy Spirit and thinking divine viewpoint, the happier you are going to be. Being happy is one of the many spiritual blessings that comes with increased capacity. Increased capacity to receive God’s happiness comes only by the study and application of Bible doctrine. (Jeremiah 15:16; John 13:17)

It is impossible to be happy as a believer in Christ without obeying the principles and commands we find in the Word of God. Disobedience brings only self-induced misery and discipline from our Heavenly Father. As Christians, we must learn to make good decisions from a position of strength. Our position of strength is in direct proportion to the amount of doctrinal truth we have stored in our souls and the use of that truth (application). (Proverbs 3:13)

The Word of God gives us a clear picture of how Jesus exhibited the happiness of God during His life. You will recall that Jesus used the same power options that we have, the filling of the Holy Spirit and Bible doctrine to sustain and empower Him. The happiness of Christ was based on truth.

There is a counterfeit “happiness” of Satan. Since Satan was unsuccessful in destroying Christ’s happiness, his mission is to attack the happiness of both unbelievers and believers. Satan has no happiness of his own to share. Therefore, he must resort to his favorite tactic, counterfeit. As the ruler of this world system, Satan can provide all the conditional and temporary “happiness” a person can handle. This includes pleasure, money, power, and fame. But these things are not Satan’s only deceptions – his most effective one is religion. (II Corinthians 11:13-15)

The word “joy,” which means happiness, has been distorted by Satan and his followers into an overt display of emotion, which is supposedly a sign of “spirituality.” Emotion is Satan’s best counterfeit of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. However, the ministry of the Holy Spirit is not felt nor seen.

Genuine happiness depends on the truth that you have stored in your soul.

True Happiness

A state of genuine, true, and complete happiness depends on absolute truth found only in God’s Word. There are, however, degrees of happiness. The more time you spend in the study and application of Bible doctrine, the higher your degree of happiness.

God is perfect happiness, His happiness is eternal, His happiness is unchanging (it never decreases or increases) because it is a part of His essence. There has never been a time when God was unhappy. The times in the Bible when unhappiness is ascribed to the Lord, it is an anthropomorphism (ascribing to God human characteristics) to help us understand. God in His grace designed man with the possibility of sharing this divine happiness.

Sharing the Happiness of God

The completed state or mature state of happiness is a matter of spiritual growth. Believers who reach this state of happiness do not require overt blessings to sustain their happiness. And their state of happiness does not hinge on people, things, money, relationships, promotion, etc. Their relationship with God has matured to the place that they do not need special blessings in order to be happy. Therefore, God can give special blessings to them since they will not forget the source of their happiness. These believers will not be distracted from personal love for God by any details of life, whether it is adversity or prosperity. The first priority of these believers will be learning and applying Bible doctrine so that they can know God and fulfill His plan for their lives. (Philippians 4:8-13; Revelation 2:1-5)

When your spiritual life becomes more important to you than the details of life, you will be able to enjoy God’s happiness in all situations. No person or set of circumstances can defeat you because your happiness does not depend on people or circumstances. Your happiness depends on the doctrine that you have stored in your soul. Because your priorities are in order, you have learned that sharing the happiness of God replaces any false, temporary happiness that this world system offers.

Sharing God’s happiness builds spiritual self-esteem, increases capacity for life, eliminates fear, increases our ability to endure suffering, and continues to advance maturing believers. When you reach the point of increased capacity in your spiritual life, God begins to pour out fantastic blessings (not always material) to you, which brings glory to Him both now and for all eternity. This means that you are no longer reaping what you sow, you are now reaping what God has sown. (James 1:2-3; Ephesians 2:7; Galatians 6:7-9; Hebrews 3:10-12)

The Litmus Test

It is impossible to have the capacity to share God’s happiness, if you’re not consistently utilizing the Problem-Solving Devices in your daily life. It’s a complete system. As with everything in the Christian life, sharing the happiness of God is only a potential, acquired only through spiritual growth. If the details of life are keeping you from learning and using the inventory of Bible doctrine in your soul, you will never experience the necessary growth required to share God’s happiness. So, here’s the litmus test for us. Am I progressing or retrogressing spiritually? We certainly never stand still in the Christian life. If you’re not growing, you’re shrinking! (Proverbs 8:32-34)

Sharing the happiness of God solves the problem of depending on someone or some thing to make us happy. People will let us down and disappoint us, but God will never let us down or disappoint us. So, learning to be happy, by remembering and concentrating on God, His love, and His provision for us, will make us happy amid any circumstance we face in life.