Have you ever finished eating an enormous meal and in less than 30 minutes to find yourself rummaging through the refrigerator searching for whatever is least expired?
It's as though no matter what you eat or how much you fill your stomach with physical food, you will never mentally be satisfied.
There are actual terms for this “mind-stomach” warfare that we refer to as “satiation” and “satiety”.
Satiation is the feeling you receive after looking down and realizing you have eaten every piece of food off your plate including the napkin. You know that physically, you are full and your pants are about to rip at the seams. Satisfied.
Satiety, on the other hand, is when the hormones in your body signal to your brain that you have eaten a full meal and aren’t hungry anymore; at least for the time being. Satisfied. Sorta.
But satiety is dependent on the nutritional content of the food you are consuming; the more nourishing the food you’re eating is, the longer you feel physically full. In turn, when you fill your body with junk food and empty calories, satiety will take longer to activate; resulting in feeling empty. Unsatisfied.
Often times we seek fulfillment through our gifts and selves, rather than through the true source of fulfillment, Jesus' love.
These “gifts” are like our dessert. Sweet at first, it feels as though they are satisfying a craving. But as you eat more of these “gifts”, you find yourself consuming more and more for comfort; resulting in a distaste for treats that were once so sweet. Bloated and regretful, you realize that you’ll never be satisfied the way you once felt because you tried to fulfill yourself with an unhealthy, empty choice.
I find that it is so important to remember that gifts are a privilege, not a promise. You don’t date someone because you know that they are going to buy you expensive gifts (well at least I hope you don’t…) Typically, you date someone because you are interested in their character and the way they make your heart feel; anything else they decide to give you is just a gesture of kindheartedness.
As easy as it is for God to grant us with his gifts of friendship, love, and jobs; he can just as swiftly remove them from our lives when we start to focus our eyes on THEM instead of HIM.
Therefore, you shouldn’t love God because you know that through his love you will be rewarded, but instead because he is your pure source of completion. He wants to grant you these things for being obedient and faithful to him out of the graciousness of his heart.
So, the next time you think that the boy who decided to stop playing Call of Duty Zombies for five minutes to answer your text is such a “giving and sacrificial” guy, rest on this:
God loved YOU so much that he literally gave HIS ONLY son to die on a cross for YOU;
so that YOU can live in communion with HIM for the rest of your life.
Just a thought while you’re waiting on that text…
I think it is time to start realizing that we should be prioritizing our promise and rejoicing in the fact that God is enough. He is more than a text message, purchase, job, money, or even an Instagram like. God likes you. In fact, he likes you so much that he created a special place in your heart that only he can fill. #TruLove
Scripture tells us, “Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you”. 1 John 2 NLT
As you go through life constantly searching for things to make you feel complete recognize that nothing material ever will; remember that those things aren’t promised. Nothing man-made is ever guaranteed, no matter what warranty you buy.
But the promise of God is. His promise is so great that when you truly seek and have faith in it, you will be graced with peace and comfort.
Romans 4:16 says that “...the promise is received by faith. It is given as a free gift. And we are all certain to receive it, whether or not we live according to the law of Moses if we have faith like Abraham’s”.
Abraham did God’s work not with the expectation of reward, but with the satisfaction of fulfillment. He experienced the wholeness of the Lord’s love in his heart and saw how real and comforting it felt. This caused him to develop an unshakeable faith, resulting in the promise of being the father of all nations despite him being born again through Christ.
So, I leave you with this;
Pour your faith into him and he will pour his love onto you.
“I am leaving you with a gift-peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” John 14:27 NLT
