ALL of us need spiritual values to be truly happy. We want to serve someone or belong to some cause greater than ourselves. To satisfy this particular need, some of us devote our leisure time to nature, art, music and so on. Yet, most of us find no deep or lasting fulfillment in such pursuits.
God designs us to live dependent of him. This is why we have a need to communicate with our Maker. The essential ingredient of a happy and contented life is satisfying this innate spiritual appetite.
There are countless experts and specialists ready to offer advice on relationships, love, family life, conflict resolution, happiness and even the very meaning of life. Yet who is best qualified to give sound, balanced direction in all these areas if not our Maker, God. The Bible can be likened to a handbook which explains how it should be used for the best results. It alerts readers to practices that may compromise our safe and reliable operation. Though God provides directions and instructions, he does not force us to accept them. He warmly appeals to us to live well and be happy.
Some feel that they have no need for God because they find many puzzling issues in life incompatible with belief in a loving God. The suffering, injustice, sickness, death, crime, moral breakdown, wars, etc. which plagued us throughout the centuries are undeniable evidence that man's attempts to govern himself independently of God have been a miserable failure.
The Bible points to a major cause of them which is man has dominated man to his injury. God chose to allow events to take their course in order to enable us to see whether the accusations leveled against him were true or false. God was in effect giving Satan and those who have taken his side the opportunity to demonstrate whether we can live well and be happy without God.
God's Son, Jesus Christ, taught his followers to pray for God's will to be done which we call the Lord's Prayer. Our Creator provides the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink. We simply could not live without the good things God has provided for our sustenance. God is not far off from each one of us.
I will go on vacation leave this December 2019. I will miss you; hope you miss me too. I will be back with my lifestyle write-up on January 2020 every 2nd Wednesday and 4th Wednesday of the month thereon.
Merry Christmas 2019 and Happy New Year 2020 to all of us!