Jesus can untie the knots

This past couple of weeks I’ve had a knot in my stomach. It comes from reading how God will use those who determine not to listen to the demands of the old nature with its desires for comfort and protection. While my husband says “most people will not die healthy” that isn’t taken lightly. I know what happens when I obey God. The devil does not like it and tries to stop me, usually along the lines of being too tired to function.

This morning’s devotional was about the power of Jesus to satisfy our desires to be godly people right to the end. The writer used verses like these promises:

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. (John 6:35)
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. (Matthew 5:6)

Then added, “Our hunger and our thirst are all satisfied forever in Him.” Of course He keeps these promises, yet He also says,

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” (John 20:21)
“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. (Matthew 10:16)

My reading about praying Scripture and sticking with God’s commands tells me that all history shows that most who do persist make incredible sacrifices in the process. The enemy does not like that sort of commitment and works to put a stop to it by appealing to the human (and often sinful) desire for comfort. It sounds something like this: “Send me God, but not there…”

Age is also a factor. God has treated me well. I call myself His spoiled brat. Now I’m hearing that if I persist in obedience, that could change. I think of this prayer:

O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come. Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you? You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again. You will increase my greatness and comfort me again. (Psalm 71:17–21)

Will He? I clicked on the cross reference and got this answer…

“Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save. (Isaiah 46:3–4)

The knots persist, so that leaves me to confess my doubts and fears, to decide what to believe; the fears that put them there or the promise of God to carry me through whatever might be in my future, including all those knots.

PRAY: I will not fake this, Jesus. I’m not excited about the howl of wolves, especially knowing the nature of this sheep. I hear You saying something like “no matter what” and am not there yet. However, the message for today at our church contains this verse: “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19) and You know what I need to get those knots untied.

LATER: Hear what I heard this morning. Knots are on the way out.

Super Satisfaction

 

St. Augustine said of God, “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

C. S. Lewis wrote it this way, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” Both knew the reality of an empty human heart and the fullness that only God can bring. He alone SATISFIES our every need.

Note, this is not ‘our every greed’ or assumption that more of anything else will satisfy. I once wanted a big, fancy house. Been there, done that — not satisfied. It is true of all things. Even at the dinner table, if I eat what I want instead of a well-balanced meal in proper proportion — not satisfied. This is so true in spiritual matters. Matthew 6:33 tells me to “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Experience tells me, ‘herein lies contentment.’

In the OT, satisfy is about having enough and being filled. It applies to food and nourishment, but also death and destruction. Several verses compare this hunger to that emptiness when people feel as if something is missing and they do not have enough. This emptiness, usually vague and unidentified, explains many actions of ‘driven’ people and the motivation behind power trips and wars:

Proverbs 27:20. Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, and never satisfied are the eyes of man.

Habakkuk 2:5. “Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest. His greed is as wide as Sheol; like death he has never enough. He gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples.”

Ecclesiastes 1:8. All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

However the OT people of God knew where to go regarding the yearnings of their hearts. Psalm 81:16 tells how God can “feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

If the need is emotional, physical, or any other desire, wisdom turns to the promises of God:

Psalm 90:14. Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

Psalm 145:16. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing.

Isaiah 58:11. The Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

Psalm 91:16. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

Jeremiah 31:25. For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.”

The NT also speaks of physical appetites concerning food, but uses this hunger to tell how God satisfies our longing hearts, as long as that longing is not misplaced. He says:

James 4:1–3. “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”

Instead, Jesus says in Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Instead of seeking ‘bigger, better, and more’ in worldly goods and prestige, I am to seek becoming more like Jesus. when I do that, God satisfies me.

Paul learned that contentment, and it is a learning process. He said in Philippians 4:12, “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.”

This is contentment. Whatever God gave was enough and he was satisfied. He adds in verse 19, “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” This contentment is in knowing Jesus and knowing He will grant to me whatever is necessary for that deep and full sense of satisfaction.

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Focusing on Jesus and eternal matters helps. So does looking at my home, family, all situations and thinking of God’s sovereignty. He is in charge and if I need anything, He has or will supply it. I trust Him to keep His promises and in times of needs, I can with confidence draw near to the throne of grace knowing His mercy and experiencing His grace will always satisfy me.