A Harvard study on Health and Wellness.
The project has followed 724 men since they were teenagers in 1938. (Approximately 60 men, now in their 90s, are still left.) The group consisted of men from various economic and social backgrounds, from Boston’s poorest neighborhoods to Harvard undergrads. Over the years, the researchers have collected all kinds of health information, and every two years they ask members questions about their lives and their mental and emotional wellness. They even interview family members.
Robert Waldinger, director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, says one of the biggest surprises they encountered was that what makes people happy is also what helps keep them healthy — relationships. We started wondering whether we could look back at our participants’ lives in middle age and see what the biggest predictors were of who’s going to be happy and healthy by age 80. We thought that cholesterol level or blood pressure at age 50 would be more important. They were not. It was satisfaction in their relationships, particularly in their marriages, that was the best predictor of a happy and healthy life.
The Harvard Study has found a strong association between happiness and close relationships like spouses, family, friends, and social circles. “Personal connection creates mental and emotional stimulation, which are automatic mood boosters, while isolation is a mood buster,” says Dr. Waldinger.
The Study goes on to talk about increase in all aspects of health and happiness, living longer and better mentally and physically. Why? Because of healthy relationships.
This study is just confirming what God’s word has been trying to teach since it was written. It is about your relationship with Jesus that saves you and increases your lifespan to eternity.
It is very important to live a healthy life, eat right, exercise, etc. Yet those that did it in social isolation did not have the same benefits as those that did it in a loving relationship. It was good to follow all the rules of healthy living, but it did not bring about the same results as living with a relationship that is filled with Love.
Keeping all of Jesus’s teaching, the laws and commandments are very beneficial to your life. Yet they have no association with the greatest benefit, which is eternal life. Only a relationship with Jesus can get you that benefit.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.” Ephesians 1: 3-8 NIV
Oh, what peace these verses bring to my life today. I was chosen to be holy, blameless, and forgiven for my sins before the world was ever created. How you ask? “blessing in Christ” and “in Him”. Because of Jesus, God the Father has chosen me to be forgiven of my sins, blameless before the throne and holy. I am wearing a white robe that has been washed in the Blood of Jesus.
My name is written in the book of Life. It did not get there by any action, behavior, habit, law keeping, or being perfect. The only thing I can do is accept this free gift and to start living a life that shows I value this free gift. Start living in a relationship that shows I appreciate that He loved me before I was born.
I worship on the sabbath because I value what Jesus did for me. I do not worship or go to church because it earns me any salvation. Not everyone in your church understands this free gift. You can tell it by how they are praising Jesus for the gift of salvation. Are they singing and praising God uncontrollably or barely whispering the words.
King David sang, danced and praised God, like no one was watching. “Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might”. 2 Samuel 6:14 NIV
God is watching how you praise and worship Him for saving you through Jesus. Are you singing, dancing and praising Him like no one is watching? Does God know by your enthusiasm of worship every day that you appreciate what He has done?
A simple thank-you is not going to work. A life that is living in a relationship with Jesus is the only way to show your appreciation for what God did.
There are people that are living by the law, living it perfectly, and they will list off all the times they went to church and did what they felt would get God’s attention, and yet on that Judgement Day Jesus will look at them with tears in His eyes and say “I do not know You”. Matthew 7:22-33.
Remember it is not a religion, It is a relationship.
Prayers and Love for all.
Larry
