THE REMAINDER OF Deuteronomy 28 is notoriously acute in contrast to the first fifteen verses, and by far leaves very little room for invoking a sense of ‘happiness’, yet read apart in isolation, for one aspect in preference over and above the other, undoubtedly creates imbalance and a serious misapprehension of the setting and context of why such instructions were given to the children of Israel.

Naturally we have the tendency to pick and choose our environments and the people we keep company with that suits and safeguards our happiness, which is ‘all well and good’ – from the circumference of our motives, but weighed honestly in the balance of God’s standards will prove to be selfishly perverse. 

The general undercurrent in today’s realm of Christian teaching undeniably caters to how one can achieve a lifestyle that ‘guarantees’ happiness seven days a week, which is in contradistinction to what the Scriptures implicitly bear, that holiness is a priority in a believers life, no matter what path that may entail for such to occur; we are redeemed solely for the purpose to be fashioned to the express image of God, Jesus Christ. Happiness is never a guarantee, but may be a result – not the proof – of our new life in Christ. Many are ‘happy’ and ‘fulfilled’ (in their own eyes) outside of the covenant of God; the cults will testify to that, and the written Word of God explicitly articulates the wicked and arrogant enjoying their days of unjust gain and prosperity (the 10^th, 37^th and 73^rd Psalm, are just a few examples among many other references).

It is deplorable how many are deceived into believing that ‘coming to Christ’ and ‘inviting Jesus into your heart’ will terminate all problems, ensuring a life of unending bliss and constant peace of mind. One can hardly find a church nowadays that reflects the honesty of God’s Word, that to be a Christian entails “you will have trouble in this world” – even to expecting opposition and conflict. Christ said that He didn’t come to bring peace on earth, but a sword (Matthew 10:34-39), a sword that disturbs, upsets and divides anything – whether it be relationships or ambitions – that is not based on Christ. Everything that is built on Christ (the motive of living to glorify Him) is likened to building a house on the rock (Matthew 7:24-25). Christ came to give His peace – not as the world knows it that is based on false assumptions – but His peace that finds our feet on solid ground, clothing us in our right minds. Christ will be a sword to those who reject and oppose Him but the healing balm that imparts the peace of God to those who have been justified by faith through Him alone (Romans 5:1).

The Christian experience is one that is peculiar where joy and pain are simultaneously encountered (1 Peter 1:6); both bring about balance and are vital spiritual nutrients that promote and excel our growth in sanctification. God is more concerned about our progress in holiness than our environments that contribute to our happiness. Happiness is dependent on circumstances and happenings; it is a mood that shifts hither and thither depending on the weather. Thank goodness the Christian’s joy is never based upon circumstances, but is a real emotion founded upon the glorious realities of eternity. Let situations come and go, the soul that is anchored to Christ shall never be moved. There is the difference in emphasis; never the lie that one is exempt from trouble but that one is not given over to panic in the midst of calamity and crisis, but through it one realizes that through such ‘happenings’, we are more than conquerors. It is the peace of God that garrisons our hearts in the midst of storms. Yes, we encounter pain and anguish on a level that confounds us out of our wits at times, but with the assurance of knowing that such things are being worked together for our best, we have joy in the Holy Spirit which is the outcome of the hope guaranteed to our hearts, a down payment of the promised covenant that can never fail by the One Who never lies.

More often than not, God will interrupt our aspirations for happiness with disillusionment and disappointment; we are so naturally inbuilt and inclined to a choosing of our own environments and social settings that supposedly ‘ensure’ our comfort and well-being, guarding them jealously from any ‘threat of invasion’, but God will not have us so selfishly rigid. It goes against one’s grain to be inconvenienced and to have one’s plans uncontrollably reorganised, but God will continue to upset our ‘little nests’ and self-orientated niches until we learn spiritual flexibility where we are made fit for His use; “…I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In and every circumstance…” (Philippians 4:11-12). We are not brought into the kingdom of God to obtain our ‘icing on the cake’. We are Christ’s ambassadors; we don’t dictate where we desire to go but rather answer to “Whom shall I send…?” – the places where God designates. He is the One Who engineers our circumstances, and the very thing that proves we are His chosen servants tells in how we yield unto Him no matter what the weather of our surroundings.

Can we stand victoriously and joyously in situations that would naturally cause us to repel, and can we stare the world’s pessimism in the face and still know a joy inexpressible that makes us light in this world? How can we expect the world to look at us and listen to us if our testimony cannot withstand all that hell would throw at us? It is mandatory to know the joy of the Holy Spirit – the certainty of the hope (the redemption of our bodies, being fashioned unto the likeness of Him, to live and reign eternally with Him) that we do not see with the natural eye. To be sober-minded is not about being morbid, obsessed with gloom and doom, as some people have an imbalanced tendency to do so; it is a biblically-sound perspective that holds all things in balance, that takes the good with the bad, recognising that everything is under the control of God, and that we are willing and eager for Him to fulfil His purposes through us in whatever scenario His providence may lead us. It is in the unexpected and least desired places of all that we see the beauty of God’s work turning deserts into oasis, bringing glory out of waste and beauty out of ashes.