Does God mean everything to you? I mean, everything? I don’t know about anyone else, but as of late, I’m feeling more tired of this earth than ever before. Tired of all the pain, suffering, crime, and overall craziness. There is so much brokenness and sadness. War, strife, and everything else that is going on down here—I’m just sick of it. Not to mention the personal spiritual struggles. Paul said it right, “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our body” (2 Corinthians 4:8-10).
Strangely enough, there is purpose in all of the madness. When we go deep into our own life experiences, I believe God wants us to see the futility of trying to get through life down here without Him. Nothing else satisfies.
I had to learn a very hard personal lesson about this. I believe that God will teach every true follower that nothing will quench the thirst of the human soul other than a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It will have to be more than a checklist—a daily “checking off the boxes” of all the things that you believe you “should” do. God will take each of us through a series of events that will test our allegiance. Everyone is different, so the scenarios will be as unique as each one of us.
Life Lessons
As we age, we go through life seasons. It is a natural part of life. Four years ago, I went through a season that helped me realize that my priorities were out of line with God’s plan. It wasn’t in the form of actual life duties or pursuits. It involved relationships. My heart was divided. I was doing all the “right” things, but in my heart, I was letting people, and their thoughts about me, mean more than what God thought about me. I was letting significant relationships mean more to me than I should. These were important people. They meant no harm. But when I was truly honest with myself, I had allowed idolatry to slip into my heart and life big-time. God had to teach me—and He is still teaching me—that no one and nothing else will fill the void in my heart but Him. He has to take the throne of my heart.
During a confusing and painful time in my life, I had to take a close-up, inward journey of truth. Psalm 51 became heartfelt to me. David wrote that Psalm of deep reflection after sinning with Bathsheba. He cried out to the Lord for mercy and help in those beautiful verses like, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me” (verse 10), in his prayer so beautifully penned. A night of pleasure resulted in a terrible sin that couldn’t satisfy the hole in his heart. But it was verse six of that Psalm that became very personal for me. It says, “Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.”
God wants to take each of us on a journey of inward truth. He ultimately wants to make us wise and pure. He wants us to take a close look at what is going on inside of our heart, for that is what dictates our behaviors. For me, God needed to show me how I had made a certain person and situation an idol. I had to learn to center myself in God, and in nothing and no one else. All of the validation that I desired so much needed to be obtained from God’s approval of me alone. No one else. My first love was, and is, to be in God; and my primary purpose in life is to know and glorify Him. This doesn’t exclude loving, respecting and honoring others. Life and Christianity is all about relationships. But in all these relationships, we are to put people and situations in their proper perspective—both in our lives and in our hearts. Nothing else satisfies. This is a hard truth.
We are told to love the Lord with all of our heart, with all of our soul, and with all of our might (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). No other love will satisfy our hungering souls.
The beauty of this soul-satisfaction is summed up in a beautiful blessing read in Isaiah 58:11. I have committed it to memory: “And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.”
Call to Action
Not only does the Lord satisfy the longing in our hearts, but He then makes us thrive and flourish like a well-watered garden. We will never drink from broken cisterns again (Jeremiah 2:11-19). We become wellsprings to then bless others. We never run dry. Because we love Him with all of our hearts, we are satisfied because, in truth, nothing else can.
Is your heart searching for satisfaction and wholeness? Cry out to the Lord, the only One who can truly satisfy.
“If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”
John 7:37-38
All scripture taken from the King James Version.
