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True Happiness Is Up to YouThe Watchtower—1981 | April 1
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8, 9. (a) We have what fundamental need? (b) What did Jesus say on this?
8 We need to develop a relationship with the Creator, to learn his will and purposes and accept them ourselves. Yes, we need that. In his book Man, God and Magic, Dr. Ivar Lissner points out that a “fundamental difference between man and beast” is that “man is not content merely to sleep, eat and warm himself.” We humans have a “strange and inherent urge” that can be called “spirituality.” In fact, Dr. Lissner reports that ‘all the civilizations of mankind have been rooted in a quest for God.’—Acts 17:26-28.
9 Jesus acknowledged this fundamental urge, saying: “Happy are those conscious of their spiritual need,” or those who recognize and respond to their spiritual hunger. (Matt. 5:3)
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True Happiness Is Up to YouThe Watchtower—1981 | April 1
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You can appreciate that those who are adrift, lacking answers, cannot feel completely content or happy. Yet, as we assign due importance to our spiritual need and seek understanding from God’s Word, we see where we fit in. Our life has more direction, more meaning, more likelihood of happiness.
11. Why will you be happier if you recognize God’s standards? (Ps 19:7, 8, 11)
11 In another way, too, we add to our happiness by recognizing our spiritual need and by having a relationship with God. We have already mentioned that accepting God’s moral standards helps us to avoid problems, but doing so goes beyond that. We actually need a reasonable, consistent set of values. God’s Word fills that need perfectly. And God’s standards are harmonious with our inherent sense of conscience. So as we comply with them we feel better, more comfortable, more at peace. (Ps. 1:1-4; Rom. 2:14, 15) We can even help our children toward happiness by sharing God’s standards with them. Dr. Robert Coles of Harvard University observed about youths:
‘They need discipline not only to tame their excesses of emotion but discipline also connected to stated and clarified moral values. They need something to believe in that is larger than their own appetites and urges. . . . They need a larger view of the world, a moral context, as it were—a faith that addresses itself to the meaning of this life we all live.’
12. What fundamental truth can you reach about your happiness?
12 It is fair to say, then, that true happiness is linked with recognizing our spiritual need and having a relationship with God, even as the Bible accurately indicated: “Happy is the able-bodied man that has put Jehovah as his trust,” that “takes refuge in him,” that is “in fear of Jehovah’ that walks “in the law of Jehovah,” and that with ‘all his heart keeps searching for God.’ (Ps. 40:4; 34:8; 112:1; 119:1, 2) God sincerely wants to extend his love to us and to come into a relationship with us. Are we consistently showing that we cherish having a relationship with him?—Rom. 8:38, 39.
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