What separates humans from animals and gives our lives purpose and meaning beyond our felt needs?

In this video, Jeffrey D. Johnson emphasizes the importance of understanding our chief purpose in life. He explains that what sets humans apart from animals is the fact that we live for something greater than ourselves and our immediate needs. While animals are focused on satisfying their immediate hunger, thirst, or discomfort, humans are designed to live for a purpose that extends beyond these temporal desires.

Johnson highlights the dissatisfaction that comes from solely living to fulfill our bodily appetites. Quoting from the Bible, he states that the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing. If we live solely for the momentary pleasures of the flesh, without considering tomorrow or eternity, we will ultimately find our lives empty and meaningless. God has not created us to live like beasts, but as His image bearers, destined to live for His glory. Living for God and His purposes brings true satisfaction, joy, purpose, and meaning to our lives.

As believers, we are called to prioritize the glory of God above our own personal enjoyment. By recognizing that our lives are made for His glory, we find true fulfillment. Our lives become meaningful and purposeful when they are aligned with the purpose for which we were created. It is in living for something greater than ourselves, in living as children of God and image bearers of the Creator, that we discover the satisfaction and joy we long for. When we place God's glory above our own enjoyment, we experience true enjoyment, contentment, and the fulfillment of our deepest desires.

Psalm 86:9 (NKJV) says, "All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, and shall glorify Your name."

It's extremely important that we know what our chief and we all have one. God's made us for a purpose so if we know it or don't know it doesn't matter we have one. But it's important that we know what that is. What separates us from animals, what separates us from beasts, is the fact that we live for something greater than ourselves. More than that, we live for something greater than our felt need.

Animals don't think about tomorrow. They just think about whatever their need is for today. They're hungry or thirsty or if they're hot, they just go about taking care of these needs. Sadly, a lot of us have lived a lot of our lives just satisfying this desire, looking for this, looking for that. But the Bible tells us the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear satisfied with hearing.

If we're just living for the felt needs or the appetites of the body, the passions of the flesh, not only are we not living for something for tomorrow or anything that's eternal, we're just living for the moment. And in the end, if we just live for moment to moment living for the now the present we'll have nothing to show for at the end of the days and that's when meaninglessness emptiness sets in the fact that we've wasted our lives Our lives have been wasted on just mere pleasure that have nothing eternal to show for. But God has not designed us to live like beasts. He's designed us to live like children of God. As image bearers of God, we're made for His glory.

We're made to live for something greater than ourselves, but that's not something that's detrimental to ourselves when we live for God. It's where we find satisfaction and joy, find purpose and meaning. The fact that we know that our lives counted, it was worthy to live a life that actually accomplished something great, something greater than just mere existence. So to know that our life is made for the glory of God brings true joyment. It's not that we put joyment above God's glory, but we put God's glory above our enjoyment, and that is how we find true enjoyment, satisfaction, happiness, meaning, and purpose, all the things that we truly long to have satisfied and fulfilled in our lives.

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