What really satisfies you?
A nice house? A relaxing vacation or exciting adventure? A really good meal? A good run? Time with friends and family? A day at the beach? Singing and listening to music? Doing good? Five minutes in the bathroom without interruptions from the children? 🙂

Did you know God wants us to have joy? He wants us to experience being fully satisfied. But it might not be in the way we expect. We so often seek satisfaction in things, in others, and in physical and emotionally charged experiences. And I’m thankful for the way God blesses us with these experiences. They have enriched my life and provided many great memories.

But I think we were designed to be fully and permanently satisfied only through a close and genuine relationship with our loving God. He is the only one who can fill our need for ultimate satisfaction.

John Piper’s book, Desiring God, has helped me view God, and interpret His Word from a different perspective. Like so many others, I had previously thought my primary purpose was to serve my wonderful, gracious, and loving creator. (And that IS a result of the Christian’s personal encounter with Jesus.) But Pastor Piper challenges us to consider “the chief purpose of man(kind) is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.” That is, to be more satisfied in HIM than in anything else.

Maybe you will ponder this one thought for a moment. How do you feel when your child or grandchild really wants, more than anything else, just to spend time with YOU? Or when you realize it really doesn’t matter a great deal what you and your closest friend do, so long as you can really enjoy each other’s company? Those experiences speak great satisfaction and value to you, don’t they? Imagine how our Heavenly Father feels when we come to Him, simply because it is so SATISFYING to be in His presence!

Like any goal, we won’t hit the mark every time. Just as there are times when we are upset with or don’t feel close to those we love here on earth, there will be times, perhaps even seasons, when we don’t feel satisfied with God. But just as we keep pursuing satisfaction on earth, let’s intentionally seek to find real satisfaction today by enjoying God more than anything else.

Psalm 63:1-5
1 You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.
2 I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
3 Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.