God and unhappiness

[lovemybatman]

Does God want me to be unhappy?
When I have a crisis, I seek God more and feel more close to God. When I’m happy or pleased with my life (whether it’s with a relationship, a “good day” in general or something like that) I feel less close to God in a way. I do find happiness and God together in nature, etc. and I do not forget anything when I’m feeling good–I thank God all the time for the good things and things that work out during the day, my blessings, etc. But when my mood is improved in general I don’t think about my spiritual search as much and I tend to “put it off” more. But when I’ve gone through crises like what I’m going through now (depression/anxiety/life difficulties)…I don’t necessarily mean this for everyone, just my self. Does it sound like God wants me to be unhappy all the time? Is that what would save me? When I’m miserable I feel more “secure” about God being pleased with me. Does this make sense? Should I push away things that make me feel good?
I’m working on focusing more on God during my better moods, and making that a foundation for my life, but I wanted to ask this question.

Note: I don’t believe that the goal of life is happiness and I do distinguish between happiness/joy and pleasure. And I hope this post doesn’t sound sarcastic or anything–it’s not.

 

[joannazenobia]

This is what I believe to be true. When we suffer, Jesus is right along side us carrying that cross with us. He wants us to pick up our own crosses and follow him. His ministry, and death wasn’t just for our salvation it was, as in the Holy Rosary given to us by our Blessed mother in the prayers, To “imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise”. Jesus modeled for us the life he wants us to follow. Many famous saints and popes suffered greatly, such as Pope John Paul II.

My priest explained to me that some people in the world are living their purgatory right now through their suffering and others, or probably most of us will later after we die, so it appears to be a necessary process where with every situation, we become closer and closer to God.

 

[Trishie]

I am so sorry that you are hurting so much
:grouphug:
but no, God doesn’t desire our unhappiness.
God desires that Love, who is God, has central place in our lives at all times whether we are sad or happy. Jesus’ command to love God above all and others as ourself wasn’t just for either the good or the bad moments, it was for always.

It’s just that we aren’t always so good at making that leap to care about and turn to God as much in our good times as in our bad. We can become self-absorbed when happy…though of course we can when sad…but we are more likely to be begging for help when we’re sad or things go wrong, because we are self-centred and or because we are desperate. It doesn’t mean we’re any holier, or more or less close to God becaue we beg or even scream to God in our misery. It just means that mostly God isn’t as central to our wishes and behaviour at either time. He’s not the one who moves or looks away, it’s we who do.

 

[Trishie]

Our God of all peoples, please receive from all ages the sufferings of the innocent and the contrite, in reparation for the sins of the guilty!

Behold—
*the bereaved and the deserted…the hopeless and the despairing…the displaced and the poverty-stricken…the injured and the physically sick…the mentally and the emotionally ill…the retarded and the incapacitated…the frustrated and the afraid…the isolated and the elderly…the addicted, the imprisoned and the persecuted. Behold those young, to old, sinned against by injustice, misunderstanding, abuse and neglect…those whose hearts this world has broken…those crushed by remorse and racked by misery and sin…those with lives empty of purpose—*all persons with suffering within or with suffering imposed from an external source! Please receive their pain, grief and loneliness, their weariness, anxiety or desperation—in conjunction with the spiritual, mental and physical anguish of Your Son, as reparation for all the sins of humankind.

Our God, through Your love of Jesus, please bless and welcome the sufferers! Hold them gently in Your arms and comfort them. Heal them, claim them, and fill them with Your life and peace.

Please accept all the undirected suffering of those who do not know God. Receive this suffering in atonement for all offences against You and any person. Allow Your mercy, compassion and power to release humankind from bondage to sin, suffering, and death.

You grant me compassion to desire to bring their pain to Your redeeming grace. Therefore, gather their tears, those fallen and those unshed. Draw them up into yourself through the sun of divine love, to purify them as a rain of mercy to fall upon the parched souls of humankind. Thus, we may grow in Your love and the earth may be filled with life and fruitfulness pleasing to Your divine purposes.

Our God, out of all the cries and moans and tears, hidden or revealed, from earth’s beginning, please hear our prayer. Joined as one with Your Son we all cry out—“My God, my God, why have You abandoned me?” Of those who torment and those who pass by uncaring and unseeing, we say—“Father, forgive them. They know not what they do and fail to do!”

With Him we then cry trustingly—“Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit!”
God, please listen to our prayer, in union with Your beloved Son whom You raised from death to everlasting glory and joy. In Him who bore all humankind’s sins, please receive all suffering, struggle and sorrow that sin has brought upon our race.

Anything separated from God is meaningless, but in God, all becomes renewed and holy. Please accept from Jesus’ hands the suffering of every person throughout time, held within His own redemptive suffering. This that the whole price of atonement is met, and harmony is restored to Creation in the eternal triumph of Your Kingdom. Thank You, God of our redemption!

 

[4EverHis]

I think that God wants Himself to be our happiness sometimes (not always though), He takes away other things that make us happy *if *they cause us to forget Him… but this is ultimately for our greatest happiness. He has our best in mind. We need to trust that He cares for us and knows what we truly need. God bless

 

[fhansen]

The crazy thing, even if it doesn’t always seem apparent, is that the whole goal of our faith is our happiness. If you think about it, why would it be any other way?-happiness is our homeostasis-it’s the measuring rod we use to know if we’re heading in the right direction. This is why the term beatitude, as in the Beatitudes given in the Sermon on the Mount, and beatific, as in Beatific Vision, have their roots in the Latin word for happiness.

The important thing is that this is and always has been God’s desire for man-and, as it turns out, God, Himself, is man’s source of happiness. When things are going relatively well we don’t feel much need for Him but we don’t live in a world where things will always go well. These other times-when happiness eludes us- can have the positive effect of turning us back to seeking God, and the ultimate end of this struggle, if we finally come to know absolutely our need for loving and obeying Him, is complete and never-ending happiness. Do a search on happiness and beatitude in the CCC index -it can be quite interesting.

 

[hdog]

no, God does not want you to be unhappy

remember God is ALL good and satan is ALL bad
feelings of unhappiness do not come from God

He loves you very much. He loves you more than anyone loves the most close person in anyone’s life. Would you want that person to be unhappy? Neither does God want you to be unhappy.God bless you

 

[lovemybatman]

I’ve been feeling much improved in the past several days (see my other threads), even my physical symptoms have improved, probably to the thanks of the people on here who have been praying (I don’t know how else such a sudden and otherwise unexplained improvement would have occurred)… But even after everything I’ve been going through, how low I have gone, and what I’ve learned, it’s so easy to pay less attention when I’m feeling better. I instantly start to “slide” from all the commitments and promises and closeness and progress.

Oh, and Trishie, that was an incredibly beautiful prayer. Thank you for posting it :3