Happiness in God involves an act of will toward the God who’s there and who loves us, even in sickness, hunger, war, and prison cells. It’s built on His all-encompassing sovereignty, love, goodness, grace, gladness, and redemptive purposes in our lives.

The prophet Habakkuk understood that there is a joy that transcends all circumstances. Here was a man in a society heavily dependent upon livestock producing, fruit trees bearing, and crops yielding, yet in the midst of his nation’s darkest hour, when they were threatened by the invading armies of Babylon, he cried out:

• Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice [alaz] in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. (Habakkuk 3:17-18)
• I will rejoice because of the Lord; I will be happy because of the God who delivers me! (NET)

The ESV translation of gil, “take joy,” like the NET’s “I will be happy,” captures Habakkuk’s mindset in the midst of horrific obstacles. He was actively grasping happiness in the Lord—determined, by God’s grace and strength, not to allow his tragic circumstances to defeat him.

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