It could very well be that when we find no happiness in the events and circumstances of this life that God is robbing us of this happiness for our own good. It could be that he is teaching us to find our happiness in Him alone and not in the things of this world.
Often what appears to be a lack of God’s blessing in what we are doing is in fact no lack at all. God, in withholding from us the happiness we seek in the situations of this life, is not acting negatively toward us, nor even in a neutral manner. Rather He is actively teaching us to find our happiness in Him alone. He is, after all, our only good.
Psalm 16:2 captures this idea perfectly: “I say to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.’”
What appears to be a lack of God’s blessing in our lives is in fact the very presence of that blessing. While gazing out our front door, waiting for God’s blessing to show up, God slips in the back door with grace we never expected.
In a similar vein when God withholds from us feelings of accomplishment and satisfaction with our own service to him, God could be teaching us to glory in Him alone and not ourselves. Do we glory in Him or in our service? Do we glory in Him or in our obedience and Christian growth? Psalm 3:3 says, “But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.”
David claimed that God himself was His glory.
What does this mean? It means that the thing he rejoiced in, felt good about, and found his happiness in was God himself. For the believer, the goal is to find glory in nothing but the Lord. The goal is to be proud of nothing but God.
He is our glory.
It is a singular grace when God works in the life of a believer such that the Christian finds glory and happiness in nothing but God himself.