07/21/2019
When we have strayed the furthest, and find ourselves worshiping gods that we have concocted for ourselves like money, power, or sex; there in that sad place of our disillusionment and depravity we will begin to seek God, and find Him. Nothing of this world, or of man, can satisfy our souls... there remains an emptiness that only God can fill.
“But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
Deuteronomy 4:29 ESV
The flaming desire for self-gratification and happiness can lead a person into humanism, and turn them inward as they attempt to satisfy themselves. Wealth looks so appealing from a distance, but how many truly wealthy people do you know who are satisfied with their lives? The happiness they seek is always in the next thing their money can buy, or place that it takes them, but when God controls their life, and purse strings, then His joy enters that void, and fills it with His Son Jesus, and the comfort of the Holy Spirit. False gods are like temptresses who lure men away, but God patiently waits for them to seek Him again.
“When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. For the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.”
Deuteronomy 4:30-31 ESV
Poor men can be just as tempted, and travel just as far away, but their suffering finds them sooner, death lies closer, and the hunger for earthly power, money, and things, cut away at them with greater ease. They either fall to their knees by realizing their plight... or else the world captures them completely, and their soul is lost to total desperation.
Who is God? He isn’t one of many that can be selected from, but is One, and He sees our innermost desires, and knows our deepest longings. He knows the emptiness inside us, the longing we have to be successful in some way, and the addiction we have in our search for happiness over His joy... yet He awaits our great awakening, and realization...
“know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time."”
Deuteronomy 4:39-40 ESV
Rich or poor, happy or sad, healthy or decrepit, Our spiritual empty place yearns to be filled. We can attempt to pack it with substitutes like gold, the thrill of distant places, new thrills and experiences, or the more destructive things like the comfort of drugs, gluttony, pride, or others, but none satisfies for more than a moment, and all of them eventually are lost to the void in our spirit. Then the search begins anew... more wealth, another place, a new thrill or experience, a more powerful drug, and greater passions and depravities... until we are either destroyed, collapse back into the world, or in a moment of amazing clarity or desperation find God...
“Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.”
Jeremiah 29:12-14 ESV
From that frustration and void where we were lost, God will find us. He will show us His Son Jesus Christ who will wash away all of our past sins and failed attempts at happiness, and joyously fill what once was our spiritual void with His presence. There is no act we have committed in our desperation that He will not forgive. All He asks is that we love Him completely, and believe in His Son Jesus Christ... then He will abide in us, and take residence in that place within us that has stood waiting for so long. Jesus tells us...
“Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”
Revelation 3:19-20 ESV
So maybe you have already found God the Father, and Jesus the Son; maybe your life is joyous, and your emptiness has vanished, but if not, God calls for you, and Jesus waits for you to answer His knock. If you are wealthy and seeking to be completely satisfied, poor and searching for some kind of relief, or just comfortably middle class but know there is an emptiness inside; if you are any of these and feel incomplete, or that something more awaits you... then turn away from your false gods, and let Jesus fill the hollow within you, and the One True God take His place within you that has long stood empty, and awaiting Him.
Prayer:
Father, we thank you for our spirituality, and the need we have for you to be with us always. We thank you for the longing we experience as it calls us to you and we search to find that something in our lives that will provide us with completeness; you. Thank you Holy Father for your Son Jesus Christ who lived, suffered, died, conquered sin, was raised from the dead, and sits at your right hand... all for my soul, and to fill the emptiness in me with your presence. How great is the joy we feel in Him, and in knowing that He didn’t do this for mankind, but for each individual man and woman; that if I were the only sinner in all of creation he would have suffered and done these things for me. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who completes me, and fills me with Joy, peace, rest, and love. Great are you who is not impressed by wealth, too mighty to suffer, or unable to know our sense of incompleteness. Praised be your Holy name, and the name of Jesus, because in Jesus I taste your peace, and in you I am at last at loved, and complete. All glory is yours Father for by your grace you have rescued me from the world, and by your Holy Spirit filled my emptiness.
“Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his payment. It will be paid in full before his time, and his branch will not be green. He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine, and cast off his blossom like the olive tree. For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of bribery.”
Job 15:31-34 ESV
Rich Forbes