"It seems to me that the usual objective so passionately desired is fundamentally self-centered: "I want to feel good" or "I want to be happy". An obsessive preoccupation with "my happiness," however, often obscures our understanding of the biblical route to deep, abiding joy".
"Many of us place top priority not on becoming Christ like in the middle of our problems but on finding happiness. I want to be happy but the paradoxical truth is that I will never be happy if I am concerned primarily with becoming happy. My overriding goal must be in every circumstance to respond biblically, to put the Lord first, to seek to behave as He would want me to. The wonderful truth is that as we devote all our energies to the task of becoming what Christ wants us to be, He fills us with joy unspeakable and a peace far surpassing what the world offers. I must firmly and consciously by an act of my will reject the goal of becoming happy and adopt the goal of becoming more like the Lord. The result will be happiness for me as I learn to dwell at God's right hand in fellowship with Christ. Our modern emphasis on personal wholeness, human potential, and the freedom to be ourselves has quietly shifted us away from a burning concern for becoming more like the Lord to a more primary interest in our development as persons, which, we are implicitly promised, will lead to our happiness."

(PAGE 20-21 from EFFECTIVE BIBLICAL COUNSELING by Larry Crabb)