I find that any day I haven’t contemplated Scripture and worshiped my Lord, my happiness invariably diminishes. I tend to be impatient, critical, self-centered, and unhappy. Something’s wrong—and that something is the lack of God’s fresh infusion of grace through His Word.
If we don’t go to Scripture frequently to meet God and delight in Him, then we can’t expect to experience true, deep, and lasting happiness. Wilhelmus à Brakel said, “The soul is either joyful or sorrowful in relation to whether he is far from God or close to Him.” Through Bible meditation, prayer, group Bible study, and sitting under the teaching of God’s Word, we get to know our Lord better and draw closer to Him. In the process, we cultivate overflowing happiness:
- In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. (Psalm 119:14)
- I find my delight in your commandments, which I love. (Psalm 119:47)
- Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. (Psalm 119:97)
Most days (I wish I could say all), I go to God expecting to be fed and encouraged, to be given joy and perspective. I sense God more in some moments than others, but I know He’s always with me and therefore I’m with Him. His wisdom, insight, grace, and love sometimes overwhelm me and nearly always encourage me. And if today isn’t one of those days, I don’t have to wait for tomorrow. He’s still with me as I go about my day. I can still think, pray, and meditate on Scripture even as I do other things, including—even especially—the mundane. Time with God is never wasted—it spills over into the rest of our day and colors it.
All of us will have times in Bible study that feel joyless. George Müller said, “It is a common temptation of Satan to make us give up the reading of the Word and prayer when our enjoyment is gone; as if it were of no use to read the Scriptures when we do not enjoy them, and as if it were of no use to pray when we have no spirit of prayer.” The key in such times isn’t to give up on God’s Word and prayer but to stay with it and ask Him to give us joy.
Feeding on God’s thoughts in His Word nourishes our souls and feeds our joy. Such well-fed and well-exercised minds will become repositories of worship, thanksgiving, and praise, which will overflow into conversations—breathing in joy from our Lord and breathing out praise to Him. A life saturated in the Bible—seeing doctrine as a basis for humble worship, not prideful posturing—will in turn infuse others with an eternal perspective and God’s happiness.
Puritan Thomas Brooks wrote:
Ah, friends, if you would but in good earnest set upon reading of the holy Scriptures, you may find in them so many happinesses as cannot be numbered, and so great happinesses as cannot be measured, and so copious happinesses as cannot be defined, and such precious happinesses as cannot be valued; and if all this won’t draw you to read the holy Scriptures conscientiously and frequently, I know not what will.
Almost four hundred years later, these words remain true. The copious happiness Brooks found in Scripture is freely available to us all—and the prospect of that happiness should draw us back to our Bibles every day.
