Our greatest joy is the happiness we experience from bringing happiness to someone we love deeply i.e. the delight we experience in bringing them joy by treating them with value.
To love someone is to so identify with their ¹well being that we cannot be happy unless they are also happy i.e. their ¹flourishing spiritually is what makes us happy.
This is the same kind of love a spiritually and emotionally mature and healthy parent has for their child. It is sacrificial love. It is love in spite of any qualities we do not like in the one loved.
This is God's love for us. He is most happy (delighted) when we are most happy. And we are happiest when our happiness is in Him.
However due to our rebellious distrust of God we seek and latch on to created things for happiness instead of Him.
But this only works short term. It is contrary to our design as bearers of His image and therefore does not bring true long term happiness.
So how does God draw us to himself so we find in Him the greatest happiness? By helping us see that true and lasting happiness is not in created things.
Our problem is we are so fixated on created things - whether that be the abilities we internally possess by birth or resources we have access to externally - we must be weaned from creation as our ²primary source of happiness. But this ³usually involves denial or loss of these gifts which is painful.
The irony is pain - which makes us least happy - is the means to our greatest happiness, which is ultimately God Himself.
But this is only due to our distrust of God i.e. pain is caused by our attaching to things that do not make us truly happy long term. God does not cause pain. It is the absence of God that causes pain.
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Footnotes:
¹What does flourishing spiritually entail? Experiencing our greatest glory which is God himself.
²Creation is not bad, it is good. But when our hearts look to created things as the source of our greatest happiness we are operating contrary to God's intent and our design as bearers of His image.
This is out of line with reality of who He and we are. This is bad because it's contrary to who we are designed to be i.e. God is the greatest source of our happiness. Without Him there would be no creation or true happiness.
³Being denied or losing the blessings of this life is only necessary when our love for them is greater than our love for God. As painful as this is, it occurs so we might experience the ultimate and greater good, God Himself. This is God's intent behind all pain and suffering. Now it is up to us to see, believe, and receive God's love hidden in our pain.
