FEELING DISSATISFIED? BE SATISFIED IN CHRIST

“Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 

(Hebrews 13:5, ESV).

There are times when I am alone with my thoughts that I experience a sense of dissatisfaction with the things of this present life. For example, my birthday should be a time of celebration for God’s goodness to me over the past year. Yet, I find myself experiencing the hollow dissatisfaction of my Birthday with friends. It's not that I don't appreciate their company, of course I do. Then there is Christmas time and all its commercialism that kills the true meaning of the holiday season. I enjoy each year spending Christmas home with my family, still that sense of being bored or dissatisfied is still with me. It’s like such times have lost their meaning, their freshness and life. Not only that, but it seems I have more of a keen awareness of being dissatisfied with a lot of things in my life. Despite how I feel, I am determined to find my delight in the Lord and Him alone. For true lasting satisfaction can only come from Him. For the Christian, Christmas is much more than jolly feelings during this festive time, it’s about remembering and celebrating the birth of Christ and why He came into the world. Satisfaction is not found in the passing things of this present life, but rather true satisfaction can only be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. The psalmist writes: “For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.” (Psalm 107:9, ESV). See also “The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.” (Psalm 34:10, ESV); “For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.” (Psalm 84:11, ESV); “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matt. 5:6, ESV). The term satisfied is expressed in each of these Bible verses mentioned in these key phrases, “satisfies, fills,”  “lack no good thing,” “No good thing does he withhold,” “satisfied.” All this reminds me that God is more than able to satisfy my every need in Christ. As I seek Him I will not lack any good thing from His kind hand. The Lord will not withhold good from those who walk righteously. The promise is to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness shall be filled, satisfied. I desire less of myself and more of Christ, then I will truly be satisfied. 

Lord, it is not always easy to focus on what really matters in life. We easily get distracted. Help us to always be dissatisfied with the paltry things of this life, until we are only satisfied in You. Grant unto us a holy discontent with what stagnates our walk with Christ, while creating a greater holy thirst for Christ alone. For true satisfaction is only found in Him. In Christ most precious name we pray. Amen.

THE POTTER AND THE BROKEN VESSEL

“And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.” 

(Jeremiah 18:4, ESV).

Recently I was on one of the social media cites, and came across this quote in a post. It read, “In Japan, broken objects are often repaired with Gold. The flaw is seen as a unique piece of the object’s history, which adds to its beauty.” Not sure how true this statement is. If it is true, it carries with it a grain of truth that applies to the believer’s life. When we first came to Christ, we came to Him and acknowledged our brokenness before Him in our sin. Fortunately for us, the Lord is our Heavenly Potter who is in the business of fixing broken vessels. Today’s text reads, “And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.” Just as the Japanese potter used gold to repair the broken object, even so gold can be seen in the broken vessels of a person who has been born again in Christ. Gold in Scripture speaks of the deity of Christ, so it is that traces of the precious beauty of that gold can be seen in a believer’s life. Broken by the curse of sin, yet the gold of Christ’s presence in the believer shines out in testimony of God’s marvelous grace in his or her life. Yes, praise be to our Divine Potter who removed the rock of sin from our clay heart and fashioned it into a new heart, a heart repaired with the gold of Christ’s blessed touch. Yes, on the outside we are still the same marred vessels we always have been, but our change is inward, a change that magnifies to the world of lost sinners the truth that broken sinners can be washed and repaired in the precious gold of Christ’s blood! “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” (2 Cor. 4:7, ESV).  Indeed, the power of a changed life is by God’s hand, and not by ours. Yet, there are those today who have “forsaken” our heavenly Potter, and thought themselves to be potters and “hewed out cisterns for themselves” of their own making. However, because they were broken, so were their cisterns broken. Their cisterns could not hold water. Only our heavenly Potter can make us into fit vessels that can hold Christ “the fountain of living water,” the water that Christ gives us. “For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” ( Jer. 2:13, ESV). May the gold of Christ's touch in our flawed being reflect the beauty of a Christ like character for God's honor and glory.

Heavenly Potter, we thank You that your business is in fixing broken lives marred by sin and misery. Lord, as we go about our day today, help us to reflect through our cracks to the world your gold you have placed in us in Christ name we humbly pray, Amen.