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[[OTOH, neither does God want us to be miserable.]]

There are a number of verses that talk about His wanting us to be happy too- Yes, we are to have joy in the Lord- above all things, as God created us to have joyful fellowship with Him first and foremost- but He’s also concerned with our waning and increasing happiness- and wishes us to be happy- He of course realizes that happiness is fickle- but He did create things to bless us with to make us happy too- which i believe is the very reason He crated taste buds-

[[I think what he’s getting at is that it becomes a problem when we let the thinking that God wants us to be happy to be the basis for making decisions instead of Scripture and God’s moral absolutes doing that.]]

I didn’t get that for the reasons pointed out in previous posts- He contradicts himself in his article- He makes an explicit point that happiness is a false/immoral doctrine-

““God wants me to be happy” is not a legitimate moral principle. It bespeaks a narcissism””

Maybe he’s confused, I dunno- but he goes on to suggest it’s ok to be happy, but then suggests we shouldn’t be because God doesn’t mean for just to be happy- by statying

“More troubling still is the self-referential and narcissistic aspect contained in the simple little word “me.” God wants me to be happy.”

God’s word does state that He is very concerned with our happiness, (as well as our Joy)- irregardless of others- His love for us includes His personal attention to our feelings- not just our joy which isn’t based on feelings-

There’s several issues that are off with this article- and I don’t know if it’s just because he’s confused, or believes something in error- but the whole point of my posts was to address the shaming of those that enjoy happiness- by saying some of the things he did- I’ve seen far too many sermons and articles that almost amount to finger wagging from the authors- scolding people- making people feel ashamed for things they need not feel ashamed about- and in this article- He points to extreme examples of wrong claims of happiness’ to chastise people for that wanting to be happy is immoral- (Which he confusingly later contradicts by saying it’s ok, but suggesting it’s only ok if we humbly acknowledge that He wants other people to be happy too, and that we must realize we may have to give up happiness in order for others to be happy-

I just didn’t find the article to be well written- and if that’s how he really thinks, then I think, as shown in the gospels, that he is wrong-

[[the basis for making decisions instead of Scripture and God’s moral absolutes doing that.]]

I got that too- but I also got just what I posted above too- he had a couple of messages in a short article that end up contradicting himself- and as i mentioned, it could result in people feeling guilty for thinking God wants them to be happy because in the authors own words, it’s immoral-