Those who live according to the criteria of the world desire the worldly, and those who live according to the spiritual criteria desire the spiritual, this is one of the first teaching of the gospels, an antecedent in the old testament of this affirmation is Psalm 1, the psalm of the two ways. We all want to be happy the Bible explains to us, in fact, the beatitudes of Jesus begin in the Gospel of Saint Matthew with the word "happy".
The point is that there are different approaches to what happiness is, the "carnal" and "spiritual" people have a different way of approaching this spiritual concept, whether we like it or not our conception of happiness is also in relation to our neighbor, because here we are talking about the spiritual faculty of empathy, happiness is enjoyed in a selfish and hidden way, or shared with our brothers, individual pursuit of happiness can edify or destroy, in this sense happiness is a choice.
For people who live according to the flesh, happiness is reduced to fleeting moments, while for those who live according to the spirit, happiness is a prize, a reward, a return ( by the law of the reaping and sowing, Galatians 6:7) that the spiritual gifts give to us, and this bears a strong resemblance with a teaching of the famous philosopher Aristotle: "Happiness is the reward of virtue".
For those who live according to the spirit, for those who live the mercy, the wisdom, and the eternal life, God is the source of true happiness and not material objects such as money or fame; and thus a beatitude of the old testament is fulfilled for those who perceive God and his divine attributes with the intelligence: "Happy are the people who are in such a state; happy are the people whose God is the LORD!" Psalm 114:15.
God wants us to achieve happiness, but what he does not want surely is that we act like fools to achieve it, because what can be bread for today can be hunger for tomorrow.