Article March 6, 1976 Issue

Know Your Need!

WILLIAM V. BUD PORTER

When we believe we have a need, the most important thing to do is to quietly search our thought and evaluate the situation to determine what our real need is. The Beatitudes set forth in Christ Jesus' Sermon on the Mount—a discourse highly recommended by Mrs. Eddy as a guide for Christian living^{See Message to The Mother Church for 1901, p. 11;}—can help us know our need.

The word "beatitude" implies supreme blessedness, or happiness, from the Supreme Being, God. The Beatitudes bring true beauty into the experience of those who live them.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"^{Matt. 5:3;} is the first blessing promised us according to the King James Version's literal translation of the Greek words. "How blest are those who know their need of God; the kingdom of Heaven is theirs" is the rendition of The New English Bible. Understood in this light, the first beatitude establishes joy, happiness, perfection, as belonging to those who know their need of God, who recognize—we might say—that they are God's ideas and thus acknowledge the consequent need to express their creator.