Well, does God want me to be happy, or does God want me to be holy, which is the priority?

Such question is really, really important to address.

This time it comes in the form of an email from a listener named Megan.

Megan writes, Hello, Pastor John, I'm with you when you say that Christian hedonism says

my happiness is not at odds with God's will for me.

But what about the dark seasons of trials?

In those seasons it seems my happiness is not as significant as God's intent to grow

my holiness.

How would you describe the pains of trials in light of Christian hedonism and God's

desire for my joy?

If human life, apart from Christ and salvation, consisted in zero happiness, and God's goal

were to bring us from the condition of zero happiness to great happiness in God, I suspect

God would not need to introduce any hardship into our lives, any discipline, in order to

bring us to the experience of supreme happiness in Him.

But that's not the real world.

Human life apart from Christ and salvation does not consist in zero happiness.

It consists in a thousand experiences of God's less happiness.

When Peter describes the pre-Christian life among the Gentiles in his day, he says it

consists in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

In other words, the world outside Christ abounds with what Hebrews 11, 25 calls the fleeting

pleasures of sin.

So when God saves us and brings us into relationship with Christ and declares us righteous, justifies

...