看到区分目标与渴望的重要性以后，今天让我们思想另一个关于快乐的重要主题──要经历快乐，我们只能把它作为副产品。倘若我们以得到快乐为目标，它会好像与我们捉迷藏那样逃避我们，但如果我们放弃追求，只视它为一种渴望，那么它就有可能住在我们心里。

我再说：想要快乐没有甚么不对，那是一种自然和合理的渴望。但问题是，如果我的焦点只是快乐的话，我就永远都不会快乐起来。我在任何环境下的最高目标都必须是合乎圣经的教导，将主放在首位，寻求祂对我的期望来行事。有一个奇妙的真理，就是当我们投放自己的精力，竭力要成为合乎基督心意的人时──即是达成公义，祂就会以说不出的欢欣和喜乐充满我们作为回应。因此，我们必须坚定和自觉地、以意志力去拒绝赢取快乐的目标，而以更像恩主作为生命真正的目标。

对「快乐」有偏执的着迷，会妨碍我们明白圣经中通向永恒平安和喜乐的道路。那是甚么道路？我们今天的经文告诉我们：「在你右手中有永远的福乐。」如果我们要经历那些快乐，我们便必须明白在右手是甚么意思。保罗告诉我们，基督升到神的右边（弗一20）。还有甚么比这更清楚吗？我们停留在基督里面越久，便越能够经历真正的快乐。

Having seen the importance of differentiating between goals and desires, we return to the thought that we can experience happiness only as a by-product. If we make obtaining happiness a goal, it eludes us like a will-o'-the-wisp, but if we give up the chase and hold it only as a desire, then it takes up residence in our heart.

Let me repeat: there is nothing wrong in wanting to be happy, it is a natural and valid desire. But the paradoxical truth is that I will never be happy if I am primarily concerned with becoming happy. My overriding goal in every circumstance must be to respond biblically, to put the Lord first and seek to behave as He would want me to. The wonderful truth is that as we devote our energies to the task of becoming what Christ wants us to be - righteous - He responds by filling us with unutterable happiness and joy. I must, therefore, firmly and consciously by an act of the will, refuse to make obtaining happiness my goal, and instead adopt the goal of becoming more like the Lord.

An obsessive preoccupation with "happiness" will obscure our understanding of the biblical route to eternal peace and joy. And what is that route? Our text for today tells us: "At Your right hand there are pleasures for evermore." It follows that if we are to experience those pleasures, then we must learn what it means to be at God's right hand. Paul tells us that Christ has been exalted to God's right hand (Eph. 1:20). Can anything be clearer? The more we abide in Christ, the more we shall experience true happiness.