How to Find Real Happiness - Think of Your Spiritual Needs

One of the beatitudes is:  "Happy are those conscious of their spiritual need."   (Matthew 5:3) Why did Jesus say this?  Because, unlike animals, we have spiritual needs.  Created in God's image, we can to a degree cultivate divine attributes, such as love, justice, mercy, and wisdom.  (Genesis 1:27; Micah 6:8; 1 John 4:8) Our spiritual needs include the need to have meaning in our life.

How can we satisfy such spiritual needs?  Not through transcendental meditation or mere introspection.  Rather, Jesus said:  "Man must live, not on bread alone but on every utterance coming forth through Jehovah's mouth."  (Matthew 4:4) Notice, Jesus said that God is the source of "every utterance3" vital to our life.  Some questions only God can help us to answer.  That insight is especially timely today, given the proliferation of theories about life's purpose and the way to happiness.  Bookstores, devote entire sections to works that promise readers health,wealth and happiness. Internet sites dealing specifically with happiness have been set up. 

Nevertheless, human thinking in these areas is often misguided.  It tends to play to selfish desires or to the ego.  It is based on limited knowledge and experience, and quite often it rests on false premises.  For instance, a growing trend among writers of self help books is to base their ideas on the theory of "evolutionary psychology," which assumes that human emotions are rooted in our supposed animal ancestry. The truth is, any effort to find happiness that is based on a theory that ignores the role of our Creator cannot be valid and will ultimately lead to disappointment.  An ancient prophet said: "The wise  ones have become ashamed. . . . Look!  They have rejected the very word of Jehovah, and what wisdom do they have?"-Jeremiah 8:9.

Jehovah God knows our makeup and what will make us truly happy.  He knows why he put man on the earth and what the future holds, and he shares that information with us in the Bible.  What he reveals in that inspired book strikes a responsive chord in rightly disposed individuals  and inspires happiness.  (Luke 10:21; John  8:32) This was the case with two of Jesus' disciples.  They were disconsolate following his death.  But after learning from the mouth of the resurrected Jesus himself about his role in God's purpose for mankind's salvation, they said:  "Were not our heart burning as he was speaking to us on the road as he was fully opening up the Scriptures to us?" -Luke 24:32.

Such joy intensifies when we allow Bible truth to guide  our life.  In this regard happiness can be likened  to a rainbow.  It appears  when conditions are favorable, but it becomes more brilliant-even becoming a double rainbow-when conditions are perfect.  Let  us now look at a few examples of how the application of Bible teachings can make for greater happiness.

Next time: How to Find Real Happiness - Keep Your Life Simple

The Watchtower, 2001