Does Happiness Bring Holiness?

The American Declaration of Independence specifies that we are endowed with three unalienable rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Would you agree that the pursuit of happiness is intrinsic to our culture’s values, to the point where we feel entitled to being happy? The Scriptures command that we are to “Be holy, because I am holy,” (1 Peter 1:16, NIV). But where do holiness and happiness intersect? Paul David Tripp expresses that idea this way: “The God we serve esteems holiness more than He esteems our temporal definition of happiness. He is not working to give us that temporary situational emotional high; He is working to produce something much better: eternal joy.”