Satisfaction part 2
We all have this idea of what life is supposed to be. This idea of what "success" is. And (whether we realize it or not) we all work towards this goal. We think if we can just GET whatever it is that we think will satisfy us... then we'll be happy. But here's the dirty little secret about getting: It's never enough. We get what we think we want, and then we just want something else. Nothing satisfies us because nothing external CAN satisfy us. It feels like there's a hole INSIDE of us. And it can only be filled by something INSIDE of us. What we're really looking for--the only thing that can fill a God-shaped, love-shaped hole--is righteousness, peace, and joy. And righteousness, peace, and joy are found in the Holy Spirit. Now the glorious truth of the matter: This hole that we're so desperate to fill... has already been filled. God has already poured His Spirit out on all flesh. He has already filled us (to overflowing) with the Holy Spirit. We WERE dark and void and without form. But then God said, "Let there be light." The problem isn't that we need something. The problem is that we don't know what we've got. We're looking for love in all the wrong places because we don't know that we can go to the source. We don't know that we ARE the source. So we try to fit in. We try to build ourselves a kingdom. We try to get what we think we don't have. And all we end up doing is robbing ourselves of the gift that we've been given. All we do is miss out on what's presently available to us. We aren't satisfied because we don't understand that everything we need... we already have. Look at Psalm 17:15, "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." See... it's not GETTING His likeness. It's awaking to the fact that we HAVE His likeness! Remember in the garden of Eden when God put Adam to sleep and took out one of his ribs and made Eve? Well the Bible tells us that Adam fell asleep, but it never tells us that Adam woke up. A big part of Jesus' earthly ministry was doing just that--waking us up. Shining the light so that we could see things clearly. Paul put it this way in Ephesians 5:14, "Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." See, our satisfaction doesn't come from getting something we don't have. It comes from waking up to what we do have--to who we really are. That's what the light of the world does. It shows us who we really are by showing us who God really is. When we behold His face in the mirror (because He lives in us) that's when we see that we were made in His image AND conformed to His image. That's when we see that our life is hid in Him and He lives in us. That's when we can stop trying to be someone we're not, and stop trying to get something we don't have. That's when we can rest in our true identity and be satisfied with the unconditional love of a heavenly Father to His only begotten Son!