Tag: satisfaction

Categories
Worship

My Failure To Appreciate God’s Greatest Reward

a present symbolizing receiving a rewardWe all like presents. We all want rewards.

I remember as a little fella, being excited when Dad would come home from a business trip, and me and my brothers would immediately be asking – “Dad, what did you bring us?” We were hoping for some reward, some present. And though we didn’t express it properly, the bigger and better reward that we should have been most excited about was that Dad had returned home.

I have often heard people talking about serving God so that they will get a reward. This is not an un-biblical idea, but sometimes I wonder if our motives might be “in the wrong place”? If I am serving just in order to get a reward from God, am I serving Him or am I serving myself?

What is the blessing that I am looking for as I serve?
The Reward of Heaven?
The Reward of Escaping Hell?
The Reward of special Crowns I might receive?
The Reward of the End of Sadness?
The Reward of a New Body with no more Pain?

If I am only serving for my benefit, who am I really serving – myself or Jesus?

Maybe I should be more concerned about the simple reward of the joy of living with Christ. Isn’t that sufficient? Maybe I should focus more on the reward of being in a relationship with Him day-by-day.

Jon Piper asked it this way:
“The critical question for our generation—and for every generation—is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven…if Jesus Christ were not there?

Too often, we can be more focused on getting God’s blessings than enjoying the blessing of His relationship.

Too often I find myself wanting God to bless me, instead of being focused on answering the question, “God, how can I bless You?” I think it is time for me to focus more on how I can use my life to bless Him – and enjoy the reward of exalting Him more than seeking to receive a reward that exalts me.

What do you think… in your experience, do more people desire the things Jesus gives or do more people desire Jesus Himself? Are people too focused on asking “God, what did You bring us?” instead of being focused on the fact that He has given us a relationship with Himself?

(quote from John Piper, God Is the Gospel: Meditations on God’s Love as the Gift of Himself)

Categories
Christian Living

My Un-Righteous Life

I wish I could say I that I was a good person. But unfortunately this is not true. Now it is true that if I decide to compare myself to others, I find that if I choose the right people to compare myself to, I can make myself feel pretty good. I just have to make sure to pick comparison people who don’t make me feel bad.

But in reality, it doesn’t matter who I compare myself to… Because the only real standard is Jesus. And when I compare myself to Him, I always come up un-righteous.

But fortunately I don’t have to stay there.
God has made a change in me through Jesus, and He has brought me into His family. Now I’m one of the “called out ones.”

“The called out ones.” The word is plural. Believers, therefore, are placed in community with others for one reason: because God has called them out of their former ways of life. Everyone in the community is deeply sinful. Everyone is called by the same God. And everyone has been mercifully placed in community together. So why pretend we’re more than we are if everything is built on Jesus’ righteousness and not our own? Why the need to be fake? The gospel frees us to be authentic, to admit that our struggles and strengths have not been fully sanctified, and to allow others to apply the grace of God to areas of our lives that desperately need it. When community is honest and authentic, people begin to experience freedom from wearing a mask, because Jesus sets people free from the need to be hypocrites.
        We all possess the same amount of righteousness — none.
The only righteousness any of us have is the righteousness God freely gives to us in Christ.

And it is because of that righteousness that I get to be a part of His family. The community we find in His family is one that brings freedom. I now have freedom and liberation to be myself. I am no longer forced to find people to whom I have to compare just so I can feel good about myself. Knowing that I have a righteousness before God through Jesus brings me an amazing sense of satisfaction and joy.

You can have that same joy, liberation, and satisfaction.
Seek out His righteousness and His community.

(How has your relationship with God given you a sense of freedom?)

Categories
Relationships

Designed for Community

The Purpose for Life… What is it?
What is your purpose for life?
Could you verbalize it if someone asked?

I don’t know what you have chosen as your purpose for living, but I do know what you were designed for… Relationships.
Connectedness.
Community.

We all want to connect.
We all desire community.
But how will we get this community that we crave?guys cooking on a big grill to signify relationships and community

We find little connections all the time – at the ballgame with fellow fans, at the office with our co-workers, with our neighbors at the barbeque. But isn’t there a deeper connection we can find?

I love how this is explained in “Creature of the Word” as the authors discuss the early church of Philippi:

So the little growing church in Philippi was now home to people like this: a Wealthy, upscale businesswoman… a slave girl with a deep, dark, wounded past… a tough-nosed jailer and his family…. What else did these people have in common but the gospel? They never would have gone to the same restaurants, hung out in the same parts of town, or listened to the same music. But because God had radically transformed them, they shared a common bond deeper than anything that divided them. They were together only because of the gospel.

Together only because of the gospel….
You see, you were created for an intimate relationship with God and others.
It is the only thing that’ll satisfy completely.

Leave one or the other out, and you’ll still be missing a part of the community that you need.

What we find out is that the gospel is the only thing that can truly put us together in real community. It is what we were designed for.

Categories
Relationships

Obtaining Real Satisfaction

From my last post about filling our lives with Christ to find satisfaction, two questions were posed: What is “real satisfaction”? and How do you “fill your life with Jesus”?

The answer I shared was that the ever-increasing number of dissatisfied and depressed people in our nation is an indication that too many people are putting their hopes for satisfaction in the wrong place. So reading devotions, studying the Bible, getting involved in a church, listening to uplifting Christian music – all of these help us to fill our lives with Christ.

Two other quotes from Matt Chandler’s ‘Creature of the Word’ also spoke to this issue. Both quotes have to do with the satisfaction we try to gain through relationships and connectivity to others.

#1 – “We simply ask too much of our relationships. Women, you’ll never find a man who completes you. Regardless of what the TV shows and movies promise you, no one can fix what’s broken in your heart…. No man is enough. You need a Savior.” And the same goes for men – there is no woman out there that is enough. You need a Savior. We can so easily believe the lies of Hollywood…that there is some Mr. or Ms. Right out that there that will meet our every need. Perhaps that’s why Hollywood is filled with so many failed relationships – these actors believing the lies of their own TV shows and movies. When we believe these lies, we place too much stock in the belief that the other person should bring us all the happiness we need. Only Jesus can bring lasting joy. Once we have Him as our foundation, then we will develop a proper understanding of the roles of our other relationships – to supplement the lasting joy that He brings.

#2 – “Connectivity does not equate to community. Being able to make quick connections with people doesn’t automatically require any depth to the relationship…. So although we are more connected than we have ever been, we also feel more alone and unknown than at any other time in human history. We relate without relationships, all together but all alone. Thus, without the gospel forming community, We are doomed to connectivity and aloneness in the midst of crowds. Only the gospel forms deep community.” It is so easy to see the truth of these statements from the social media explosion that has taken place. We quickly find that connectivity does not equal community. The need for a Savior and the relationship transformations that He provides within His church – the forming of true, deep friendships with unity and interdependence – are essential for our total well-being.

So how else would you answer the two questions of:
1. What is “real satisfaction”? &
2. How do you “fill your life with Jesus”?

Categories
Christian Living

A Cup of Cold Water

It’s been pretty chilly all over the country the past few weeks, including here in middle Mississippi, so if you are still trying to thaw out, a glass of ice-cold water doesn’t sound very good to you. That just means we’ll need to use our imaginations today. Travel in your mind to summertime – the middle of July. Do you remember how hot it is? So hot you could fry an egg on the hood of your car. When you step outside the heat hits you so hard, it makes it difficult to breathe. Now you’re no longer complaining about how cold it has been, but rather, you are sweltering and sweating and wishing for cooler days and that you weren’t cooking in the summer heat. When you get to that mindset, think about a simple glass of ice-cold water.
A glass of ice cold water
Think about standing outside in that sweltering summer heat, having just finished weedeating or some other miserable summertime task that has you dying for a glass of water. Sweat is dripping off your brow and into your eyes causing them to burn a bit. But you look over on the steps by the door and there is a thing of remarkable beauty. Someone has set out for you an ice-cold glass of water. The glass is full of ice cubes and the water is glistening inside that glass – beckoning you to come over and drink it. Beads of condensation are running down the sides of the glass. Your hand grabs that cold, wet glass – it feels so good that you even get a little shiver – and you put the rim of the glass to your lips. The coldness is about to be on your tongue, you tilt your head back to take your first big swallow and to feel that ice-cold goodness pour down the back of your parched, dry throat. And as you pour it into your mouth, you get a terrible shock as you realize it is a glass of salt water. The salt is all in your mouth, and you find yourself spitting and sputtering out nasty salt water. What a terribly cruel joke.

It looked like what you needed, your desire for it was so strong, but once you tasted it, you found that it didn’t satisfy in any way.

Ocean water contains seven times more salt than the human body can safely ingest. Drinking it, a person dehydrates because the kidneys demand extra water to flush the overload of salt. The more saltwater someone drinks, the thirstier he gets. You can actually die of thirst while drinking water.

In this life, we can do the same thing as we lust after the things of this world instead of for Jesus. We thirst desperately for something that looks like what we want. Something that will make living enjoyable – that will give us a sense of satisfaction and joy. We try all sorts of things. We don’t realize, however, that all these things that we are trying are the opposite of what we really need. We are thirsty for something in life that will bring us true satisfaction, but we are not drinking from the right fountain. Jesus says He is the Living Water – the only fountain that satisfies completely.

Whatever you are filling your life with – if it is not Jesus – it will not fully satisfy. It might give a moment of happiness, but in a short matter of time, life seems empty again. Only when you are filling your life with Jesus, does life make sense and bring satisfaction. It is only then that everything else fall into its proper place and can be properly enjoyed. Take a moment today to be certain that you are filling your life with Jesus, the Fountain of Living Water.

Don’t drink in salt-water – drink in Jesus.