Last week I wrote a post that I titled “Can’t Get No Satisfaction.” If you missed that post, click here to read it. I am convinced that the hunger for fulfillment is one we all constantly struggle to satisfy. It is one of the great challenges of life. For that reason, today I want to again look at where to find the satisfaction we all deeply desire.   

I have a speech impediment and that for much of my life left a void in my soul. A void that in my youth I attempted to fill through athletic accomplishments. My childish thinking was if I could score one more touchdown or just win another sprint, the void in my soul might somehow be filled with the satisfaction of success. Just let me say, that game plan did not work too well. I was looking in the wrong place.

My football career ended prematurely due to a serious neck injury and several years after that I finally gave up on sprinting due to nagging lower leg issues. I felt like I was “left with nothing.” You might not have played football or run track, but I am sure you had and have success in whatever you are talented at, and if you are honest, you will agree that none of that brings lasting contentment. No amount of fame or fortune can permanently fill what is intended to be filled by God.   

Not only is it fame and fortune, but also more stuff, washboard abs, larger breasts, more friends, the nicest car in the neighborhood, or the latest technology gadget, that we seek after to help us fill the void that is within us. We go through life opening and closing drawers on the card catalog cabinet, looking for what is not in there.

Enjoying life and the trappings that comes along with it is not a bad thing. God wants us to enjoy life. In 1 Timothy 6:17, among other things, we are told that God “richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” But Scripture also tells us that worldly “stuff” does not bring soul filling satisfaction that lasts a lifetime.

Scripture is filled with verses promising satisfaction to the discontented soul.

“Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty’” (John 6:35).

Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things (Psalm 107:8-9).

C.S. Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity gives us this answer to why looking for happiness in places other than God is hopeless. Here is what Lewis says – “The reason it will never succeed is this. God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering with religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”  

So, enjoy your success and your stuff for what is it intended, but look for and find permanent peace, joy, and happiness only in Jesus. He is your lasting and living water!

Where do you look for satisfaction? Are you looking in the right place?

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Think for a minute about the food and drink you consume every day. You hopefully eat three well balanced meals, with maybe a small healthy snack here and there to boost your energy. There are all sorts of calculations to determine the proper daily estimated energy requirement (calories) to maintain a healthy body and lifestyle. There are four main variables that go into the calculation: sex, age, weight, and activity level. You should check with your doctor or nutritionist to determine your recommended calorie intake needs.

In addition to eating properly, we need to keep our bodies hydrated by drinking water. Using several reliable resources, my hydration requirement is 96 fluid ounces per day. Most experts consider “water” to be any beverage without alcohol, sugar, and to some degree, caffeine. Even though caffeine is a diuretic, meaning it causes you to want to urinate, certain (unsweetened) caffeinated beverages like coffee and tea can in fact have a net hydrating effect.  

But regardless of your level of food or drink intake, you need to keep replenishing your body in order to function and maintain proper health. You eat breakfast and by lunch, maybe even by 10 AM, you are hungry again. By dinnertime, you are again ready for a good meal. You drink a cold bottle of water that soon gets absorbed into your cell membranes and bloodstream, i.e., it gets used up, so repeated drinks of water are needed to keep your body temperature regulated and your organs functioning efficiently.  

Our bodies convert the food and drink we consume into energy that helps keep us running like a well-tuned engine. Just as our bodies need to be filled with food and drink to stay healthy, our souls also need filled to stay healthy. And just as we sometimes ingest unhealthy things into our bodies, we also try to fill that hole in our soul with all the wrong stuff.

The hippies used to profess that all they needed was sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll to be fulfilled. Mick Jagger sings about never being able to find satisfaction in the world’s things in the Stones first #1 hit, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” Nothing has changed. We keep searching for things to fill our emptiness, some healthy, some not so healthy. But regardless of what it is, that stuff we substitute for God, while for a fleeting moment might provide us with satisfaction, it soon leaves us “hungry and thirsty” again.

In Ephesians 3:19, the apostle Paul prays that the faithful in Jesus Christ will be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”   

We read these words in Romans 15:13 – “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

And Jesus, in a conversation with a Samaritan woman at a well, tells her – “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13; in context, 4:1-26).

So, today, I encourage you (and me) to get the proper intake of food and drink, exercise regularly, have adequate periods of rest and sleep AND to ask Jesus to fill you with His presence, through the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:11; in context, 8:1-17), allowing you to be filled to overflowing with the fullness of God. Just as your body needs replenishing every day, your soul leaks and needs filled again and again too, so, never stop asking! In doing so, you can, and you will, get lasting satisfaction.

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We live in a world where you need to meet certain standards, certain criteria, in order to do most things. When applying for a job, the prospective employer looks over your resume to see if your education, background, and experiences qualify you for the position for which you applied. To be approved for a loan you need to be qualified by the lender, meaning you meet their requirements for extending you credit. In track and field, you often only qualify for championship events by meeting certain time, height or distance thresholds. 

If you do not have an accounting degree, you likely are not qualified to be an accountant. If you’ve filed bankruptcy or been delinquent on paying your bills, you might not qualify for a new car loan. If you run the 100 meter dash and your fastest time is 10.88 while the time required to qualify for the national championship meet is 10.50, you will be watching the track meet on television rather than participating in it. In each of those cases, the individual is the qualifier. It is you who has control over whether you meet the criteria required. You must do something, or not do something, in order to qualify.  

Whereas not meeting certain standards, certain criteria, disqualifies us from doing certain things in daily life, in God’s economy it is Jesus who is the qualifier, not the individual, and in and through Him we can do things that one our own are impossible (Philippians 4:13). When it comes to Jesus, the goal is not transformation, the goal is a relationship with Him. And through that relationship, becoming more like Jesus (transformation), begins to happen.

It is Jesus who gives you supernatural abilities; allowing you to do things otherwise impossible. You might have heard the phrase, naturally supernatural; meaning you can be yourself and God shows up and does some amazing things in and through you. Since you are qualified because of Jesus, you be uniquely yourself, and God can and will use you to pave the way for people to actually experience His loving, healing, and transforming presence.

Naturally supernatural is not some freaky or crazy way of talking or acting. It is not weirdness, hype, or manipulation. Being naturally supernatural is simply being myself (no pretend spiritual persona) and knowing that God will show up, responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in my own authentic way. And you can be yourself and know that God will still show up.

In 2 Peter 1:3-4 we read this: “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”

I am not big on clichés, but this one says in eighteen words what I took an entire post to say – God doesn’t call the qualified, doesn’t call the equipped, instead, He qualifies, He equips, those whom He calls.

So, unlike the world around you that gives you a list of qualifications needed before you can begin, Jesus simply says to you what He said to Peter, as Peter stood on the edge of the boat in that dark and stormy night on the Sea of Galilee – “Come.” (I encourage you to read this story in its entirety, found in Matthew 14:22-33.) The only qualification needed is a willingness to say yes.

[Author’s note: “The Disciples See Christ Walking on the Water” is an oil on canvas painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner in 1907, housed in a collection at the Des Moines Art Center (USA). The image is in the public domain.]

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In today’s world we are all looking for safety and security. We install antivirus software on our computers to keep from being hacked. We have home alarm systems and put padlocks on storage units to keep the contents safe. You probably have a list of twenty or more passwords you use to keep your accounts secure. Hopefully you run an annual credit report to see that your financial information has not been compromised. Most companies have sophisticated privacy and security policies and procedures intended to both safeguard their data and protect against unauthorized access of that data. Homeland Security is just one of many governmental agencies charged with public security.   

None of the safety and security measures I just mentioned are bad things. But they do at times fail us. Maybe your computer gets infected with malware even though you have virus protection. Neither your home and storage unit are completely safe from theft; seasoned burglars know ways around alarm systems and padlocks. You are a victim of identity theft even though you have secure and encrypted passwords. You are very careful and cautious when paying for purchases with plastic cards, but when you pull an annual credit report, you are surprised to find that someone in Brazil has fraudulently opened a credit card in your name. Despite computer network firewalls that monitor and filter incoming and outgoing network traffic, data breaches and ransomware attacks continue to create widespread havoc.    

We all want assurance that what we do and where we go will provide us safety and security. And while you can never be 100% guaranteed regardless of the number of protections in place, you can find total safety and security in life’s troubles when you place your trust in God. (Notice I did not say exemption from life’s troubles, but rather, safety and security in those troubles. See John 16:33.)

Psalm 121 is a wonderful reminder that we have safety and security in God. It is the second of fifteen psalms (120-134) known as The Songs of Ascent. Among Bible scholars there is no real consensus as to what this “ascent” refers to. Among the most common interpretations is either these psalms were sung by worshippers as they ascended from Babylon to Israel three times a year for the festivals or that these fifteen psalms were sung by the priests as they ascended up the semi-circular steps within the Temple.

Here is Psalm 121 in its entirety – I lift up my eyes to the mountain –where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord,the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip – he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you – the Lord is your shade at your right hand;the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm – he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

And with God’s promise of safety and security also comes His peace – Numbers 6:24-26, Psalm 29:11, John 14:27.

The New Living Translation puts Proverbs 3:25-26 like this – “You need not be afraid of sudden disaster or the destruction that comes upon the wicked, for the Lord is your security [confidence]. He will keep your foot from being caught in a trap.”

God wants to give you the safety and security that is only found in Him through a personal relationship with His Son Jesus Christ. Right now, will you fully surrender your life to Him, either for the first time, or if you have let your relationship wane, will you recommit yourself to Him?

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One of my favorite times of the year is upon us – the start of the college football season. Thinking back to my football days, the beginning of preseason camp was something I looked forward to. But then 5 a.m. wakeups, three-a-days and sore muscles set in. In high school, we practiced next to a chocolate factory. Oh, how we loved the sweet smell of chocolate wafting over our field. In college, after having the team run what seemed like way too many gassers at the end of practice, usually in full pads, it was not uncommon to hear our head coach yelling, “Don’t worry about the pain men, you always faint before you die.” The beginning of a new season is also fresh start, last season’s successes or disappointments meant nothing

Each week during the season we would watch the game film of the game we just played, looking for what worked and what didn’t work, often with the coaching staff rewinding back to a particular play repeatedly. We would then watch game film of our upcoming opponent and begin preparing for that game. Focusing on the last game would not help us prepare for the next game. Learning from the last game would help us prepare for the next game, but dwelling on that game, whether we won or lost, did nothing to help us prepare. 

The same is true in the game of life and in our walk with Jesus. What we did or said, or what was done or said to us, yesterday, while it might sting for quite some time, cannot be changed. The game film can be replayed and watched over and over, but the outcome of a particular play, or the final score of the game, does not change simply because we replay the game film over and over. We can learn from it, but what happened in the past is unchangeable.

The apostle Paul gives us a good model to follow. In Philippians 3:12-14 we read these words – “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

In this passage Paul is saying that he forgets his past and presses ahead. Forgetting does not mean wiping his past from his memory but instead he makes a conscious decision to not allow it to absorb his attention and slow his progress. And Paul had a checkered past, one that would have been easy to let burden him. Before his conversion on the road to Damascus he did everything in his power to persecute Christians. After his conversion he was persecuted, falsely imprisoned, and beaten, as he proclaimed Christ to the world around him. 

What happened, or didn’t happen, yesterday is in the past. While yesterday might help to set your course for today and tomorrow, it should never hold you back. Yesterday is done and gone.

So, I ask you today, are you allowing your last game, or maybe even an entire season, to hold you back or are you using it to prepare you for next week’s game? Are you holding onto regrets, hurts, grudges, or feelings that need let go of? Today is a new day, a fresh start, a new season, so press on, both in life and in your relationship with Jesus!

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I ask you to think of that person in your life whom you deeply respect; that someone you look up to. It could be someone you know – family member, friend, teacher, coach, pastor, or co-worker. Or maybe that person is someone afar – world leader, business leader, celebrity, or athlete. You likely respect them because of what they’ve accomplished or how they conduct their life. This person is not someone simply respected because of who they are, but rather, they have earned your respect.

It is also true that respect is fleeting. I am sure that you can also think of that person whom you deeply respected, only to find out that they were not really who you thought they were. We are a culture that enjoys putting people upon pedestals and sadly also sometimes get satisfaction from watching them fall off that pedestal and shatter into pieces.

While we honor people for the things they say and do, we are called to honor God simply because He is God. In teaching us how the pray, Jesus starts off his prayer like this – “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name” (Matthew 6:9) That word hallowed is not one we typically use in everyday language, yet most modern version of the Bible retain it. It comes from the Greek word hagiazó, and is the passive voice of the verb, meaning “to treat as holy.”

Notice that Jesus does not begin by saying something along the lines of “Our Father in heaven, because You are faithful, because You are trustworthy, may You be honored.” Instead, Jesus acknowledges that the Name of God is hallowed, simply because of who God is. Jesus is saying, “Let your Name be holy.” What name? God’s Divine Name, his Personal Name, the name he revealed to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3. That name is YHWH, Yahweh, or the Latinized name, Jehovah (JeHoWaH).

God’s Name is holy because God is holy, not by what He does but because of who He is. In saying “hallowed by Your name,” Jesus is not referencing God’s reputation. He is instead calling us to recognize God and His Name to be holy, and someone who we can personally address as such, without fear of it being fleeting or temporary reverence.

So, while those people we respect occasionally lose our respect and shatter into pieces, you can forever be assured that God is worthy to be praised, simply because His name is hallowed. There is none like Him.

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