You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever. Psalm 16:11
What do people mean when they say, “You deserve to be happy?”
Sometimes people say, “You deserve to be happy!” when a person’s life circumstances have improved after going through hardship—a happy new marriage following one of betrayal or a business success after a failure that took years to pay off debt.
What do we deserve in life? What do we have a right to?
God cares deeply about your life. His care for you goes all the way back to your very first day of life, because you were made to reflect Him … and worship Him. The very first page of God’s book, the Bible, says that He ” … created human beings in his own image” (Genesis 1:27a). That means that you have God-given dignity and worth that no circumstance, no person and no failure of your own can ever take from you.
Like a loving parent, God wants you to live a deeply fulfilling life that’s not dependent on life’s circumstances, but one that’s anchored in the bedrock of His joy. Scripture tells that He planned for you to experience joy through relationship with Him. The Bible book of Psalms says God wants to show you ” … the way of life, granting [you] the joy of [his] presence and the pleasures of living with [Him] forever” (Psalms 16:11). But we can’t live in relationship with a perfect God without forgiveness for our very imperfect lives. That’s why God let his Son, Jesus, take the punishment that is what we actually deserve.
So, do we deserve happiness? The Bible says no, but God’s plan was always to offer forgiveness and life lived in the joy of His presence now, and then the pleasures of living with Him forever! Don’t have that? He says, “Call on me and I will answer” (Jeremiah 33:3).
