When we seek satisfaction in the wrong places, we not only doom ourselves, we become downright dangerous to others. We need to get the message clearly through our skulls that God never intended any other earthly relationship to fulfill our deepest needs. We can easily be led into captivity by seeking other answers to needs and desire only God can meet. Maybe we have all experienced an empty place deep inside that we tried our best to ignore or to fill with something other than God, I know I have. But part of living in our liberation in Christ is allowing Him to fill our empty places. And that doesn’t mean a life full of activities, but a soul full of Jesus.
God intends for us to find satisfaction in Him; complete, lasting, soul-quenching, emptiness-filling satisfaction. We need to realize that God desires for us to find genuine satisfaction in Him, which will help us, overcome our idolatry: settling for satisfaction with anything other than God. And that’s a big problem, for two reasons I see; first- there is only One true God, second- we are settling for less and for upset if we search for satisfaction in anything other than the One true God. Anything we try to put in a place where God belongs is an idol.
One mystery I will never fully understand is why I, why we as believers, would trade God, the only source of genuine satisfaction, for worthless idols that will never truly satisfy. Yet that transaction calls to me and calls to believers every day of our lives. In that case, we need a simple goal for our satisfaction. We must recognize that God and God alone can satisfy- it’s so simple as believing God is who He says He is. That solution also challenges our belief system- can I, can believers, honestly say that they believe that God is God, and it needs to be asked of ourselves, is God really enough to satisfy me, do I trust that?! The answer is a most unwavering YES HE IS GOD and YES IS ENOUGH, but we have to live like we truly believe that, in pursuit of His all encompassing satisfaction. We must confess our unfaithfulness as the idolatry that it is and seek Him only.
Our lives have been sanctified by the One true God. Heaven is His throne. Earth is His footstool. The winds do His bidding. The clouds are His chariot. The earth trembles at the sound of His voice. When He stands to His feet, His enemies are scattered. He is transcendent over all things. Absolute. Uncontested. Omniscient. Omnipresent. The Lord God omnipotent reigns! He is God, and there is no other!
You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has made. The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them. The Lord watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy. My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord; let every creature praise his holy name forever and ever. (Psalms 145:16-21)
“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does no satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good and your soul will delight in the riches of fare.” (Isaiah 55:1-2)
In the above passage, God starts by freely offering nourishment and provision to all those who are in need, all those who are looking for a space to fill, that, as we see, only God can perfectly and consistently provide and satisfy. Then He asks, why work for and search for that which cannot satisfy; why do you work for things that are never enough, can never fill you, and are endlessly insufficient?! We fall short of satisfaction in this world because it is not in Christ, but instead of Christ. But if Christ is the reason for our satisfcation and our reason for pursuit we will most definitely experience satisfaction, God-given satisfaction! He promises us, and God is faithful and true, and will fulfill all that He has said He will.
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