A taco, no matter how tasty, is never meant to fill you up forever. It lasts a meal, but no longer. Likewise, a refreshing drink of water is never expected to last a lifetime. The stuff of earth was never meant to satisfy us. No aspect of experience or stuff here can give enable us to taste our best life. Nothing here was created to satisfy us thoroughly and eternally.
What’s funny is, sometimes we act like it can. We believe it can. At least, our actions show we believe it. We work and strive and struggle to get something. We labor and long for something. Some earthly, temporary thing. Like a taco that will only last one meal. Like a cool drink that will last only part of a day.
I Would Be Satisfied If______________________.
Fill in that blank. Is that something that will last forever? Satisfy you for the rest of your life? The perfect job, the committed soulmate, the dream car, the dream house, the pregnancy, the TV, the computer, that one moment in time, that perfect feeling, that perfect fix. These are all cheap substitutes compared with the true source of satisfaction. When we get them, at times we find ourselves sadly satisfied, not knowing there is more.
The God-Shaped Hole in Every Heart
According to Blaise Pascal, there is an infinite happiness that was once in a man. It points to the One who alone can satisfy,
(Blaise Pascal. Pensees. New York; Penguin Books, 1966, p.75.)
The Only One Worthy of Our Longing
The infinite God worked with infinite wisdom to create a way for us to know Him and dwell with Him forever. He defines goodness, love, wisdom, power, and forgiveness. He created all, and those He created rebelled against Him. Yet, He holds the universe together as it spins on its axis 1,000 miles per hour and whirls through space around the sun at 67,000 miles per hour. Every day, He safely guides our planet 1,608,000,000 miles through space. Every day, He holds every subatomic particle of every atom together with what scientists have defined as “the strong force.” This force is 6.000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times stronger than gravity.
“In Him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:17b).
Lost in Reality or Satisfied Rightly?
The only way to have our longings fulfilled is not to find them lost in a greater reality but to find them satisfied in the One who defines reality. This happens when we lose ourselves in loving Him. Only then can we find who He designed us to be and live the ultimate version of ourselves. But not for the sake of doing that- only for the sake of knowing Him and making Him known.
Full, Complete, All We Need
Jesus is the living water that satisfies for all eternity. But not for satisfaction’s sake. We know and love Him, because of Who He is. We delight in Him, because He is the highest delight. We live for Him, because He in Him is the meaning of life. And in knowing and living for God through Jesus’s redeeming work in His death, burial, and ascension, we find the only true, lasting satisfaction there is. Apart from Him is the incredible empty.
Not Just All We Need, But All We Want
As we know God through His Word, His redemption, and the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit, our desires begin to be transformed to the very desires of God, the highest desires we could ever have.
Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4
Then, we can see that He is not just all we need, but He is all we want. We begin to see we need Him and are satisfied in Him, but that this is not the point. He is the point. His glory is the point. The eternal satisfaction we have in Him is a side benefit to the true one: Knowing and walking with God for His glory and His mission.
More About This
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