God wants me to be happy. So . . . whatever makes me happy must be the will of God.
Tell that to Baruch.
The secretary who spent so much time writing down God’s words given to Jeremiah was tired of the gloom and doom and in chapter 45 voices his discontent. If Jeremiah felt the pain of God over his people, Baruch was no less pained with his work as a scribe.
Notice God’s reply: “If I am tearing up my own creation, do you really think this is time to be thinking about your career? Be grateful I’m going to let you live.” I’m paraphrasing of course, but that’s fundamentally what God said.
God is not so concerned that you be happy. God has greater things on His mind than your happiness. He calls you to be faithful to Him and find happiness in His service. If you can’t, well, things will not go well for you.
This is also basically what the Jews in Egypt were saying (chapter 44): ‘When we followed the Lord, our lives were miserable. But now that we follow Egyptian gods, we’re doing better. We’re going to follow them.’ And so, seeking happiness, they followed their pleasure all the way to destruction.
The Lord’s road is not always level and smooth. But it’s the only road that leads to where any of us really want to go.