As a Christian this is how I believe meaning and happiness should be found

[jennifer_bloom]

I believe life has four purposes

Most religious people believe life is about finding and serving God

But I believe it’s also about helping others find and serve God

You help people find God by showering them with compassion and prayer

You help people serve God by counselling them when their judgment is clouded or by encouraging them with confidence building social methodologies or friendly social association or remedial methods of aid when they are in crises situations

You find God by seeking wisdom and respect

You serve God by striving to be the best person you can be socially and morally and professionally and domestically

And you serve God by sacrificing your money or temporary pleasures or temporal comforts or temporary reassurance for the long term goal of a deeper intimacy with the one who can bless you both on earth and in heaven

[Jjpayne]

I totally agree! Well thought out!

[Jjpayne]

It's good to know your core values and beliefs and to help them guide you towards a better life

[Jjpayne]

Thank you for the mho 😊

[LemiaOfTheCodes]

Very Nice

[genericname85]

live has no purpose. humans are seeking for meaning in everything as a way to surive. being happy is a decision, not something you have to find.

it's funny, cause i actually deal with that topic scientifically. if you look at societies in Europe, the individual and subjective quality of life rises and falls pretty much with the objective circumstances: money, education, access to public goods, sanitation and so on.

hoever if you look at south america, people live in unsafe countries, with gangster mobs and high mortality and poverty, yet they tend to evaluate their lifesatisfaction and overall happines close to 10/10 even though their life is objectively worse than even the worst in Europe, which evaluate their happiness and life satisfaciton at around 6/10.

religion has nothing to do with it either. religious confession does not at all correlate with happiness and life satisfaction. that's a fact.

happiness can be found multiple ways. i'm sure some find it through religion. but religion is not the thing that makes people happy.

[Maraneva]

I believe what you're talking about is practical faith, that is practising what you preach.
While religious people say life's purpose is finding and serving God, finding God doesn't make sense to me because God is omnipotent and present everywhere. It is a matter of realising divine presence in the little things in life.
The reason people fail to find purpose and faith is because they don't live their faith. It's not enough to order someone to love their neighbours as themselves. We should in the first place, love them as ourselves before preaching. It's not enough to talk about respect to others if we ourselves are disrespectful etc. I believe that living a good life will make others want the life we have, that is, a life filled with divine help

[PhilEvans]

If you want to be a Christian, then you do you.

But I take great offense at proselytising. I don't come into your religious establishments to espouse the greater intellectual rigour that is atheism. So you can damn well not knock on my door or stand on street corners and preach.

[Gravit1]

You can't see God unless you first see Jesus Christ. I agree with you that our testimonies and Christ work through us is powerful Evangelism. We are to tell people about Jesus and what He did for us. Jesus is God, but Jesus specifically is our Salvation. I'm glad to hear that you see the importance of telling others about our Lord. After all would you want your friends to go to Hell?

[keenmind2007]

It has to be about both really. You can't help people find and serve God if you haven't done that as yet. One does take precedence over the other as you say, but finding a balance between the two seems a much better approach.

[anewme]

I think so much new information is coming out and changing ideas rapidly and old habits and beliefs.. One thing helping others I feel is one or thee best feeling in this planet? This God in book was lonely remember?

[Anonymous]

I'm an atheist but we share the same views minus the god part haha. Interesting approach to life!

[ZenDracula]

Eew. Christian supremacy.

[Calgarydirty69]

happiness is a choice