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Monday, January 10, 2011
Christianity is full of paradoxes. To find yourself, you must lose yourself in Christ (Matthew 10:39); to be great, you must become the least (Luke 14:11); and finding joy requires giving up the pleasures of this world (Galatians 6:14). One of my favorites is the fact that God can somehow satisfy us and yet leave us starving for more of Him at the same time (Psalm 107:9; Matthew 5:6). Though the world doesn’t fail to offer us that same satisfaction, it has been my experience that true joy cannot be found in earthly things, but in Christ alone (Isaiah 55:2).
“Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”-John 4:13-14
Even though today’s culture terribly overemphasizes the joy and peace of serving God and ignores mankind’s need for redemption (see this post), the Word of God makes clear to us that these things are among the many benefits of serving God (Romans 14:17). Those who come to Christ for no other reason but to have a happier life will likely be disappointed, but those who allow the seed of the Gospel to fall on good ground will find more joy than they ever thought possible (Matthew 13:8).
The satisfaction this world offers us is as temporal as the things in it. How foolish would it be for us to look for enduring peace and lasting joy in temporal things and momentary treasures! The joy of the Lord, on the other hand, is as eternal as the One Who gives it to us and nobody can take it away (John 15:11). Do you have it?
6 comments:
Mmmm, great post. I love the fact that Christ can satisfy our deepest longings, and give us even greater longings of Himself to be satisfied in!
Hey man, I love how saturated your posts are with the Word of God. Keep pressing in on the Word, God's given revelation of His character. I hope I can learn to pour the Word into my posts as you do.
Camden
Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
Dakota,
Thanks for stopping by my Garment of Praise blog. I find it interesting that you are seventeen - and I'm seventy-one. And we are both children of God.
It comforts me to know that there are those in the younger generation who have come upon the truths of God and are zealous to spread the good news.
Hi Dakota,
Nice to meet you! Thanks so much for stopping by my devotional writing blog last night. I love your blog, and I love this post. I love the lead paragraph. I never thought of Christianity having paradoxes quite the way you phrased it. And you have scripture to back it up too. Bravo!
I read your post below this one as well. I will check this out. I'd like to incorporate reftagger into my posts as well. I also want to learn how to incorporate links into the messages I leave on other people's blogs. Like for instance if I want to link an earlier post I wrote in a message I leave on a blog. Don't know how to do that. Can you help me with that?
Also, I have a photography blog at http://judysphotogallery.blogspot.com (See, this would be a perfect place to leave such a link). Please visit and follow if you'd like. I'm now a follower of this blog and your photo blog. Talk with you soon!
Blessings,
Judy
Oh maaaaaaaaaaaaan Dakota… this hymn is one of my new absolute favorites believe it or not.. I’m psyched that you found a video of TAN playing it!!! It’s really cool how God works.. he’s been bring this song into my life as a great reminder quite a few times recently… a few months ago, I had another friend sent me a video of Adam Young singing the hymn… ever since he shared it with me, the words and Lyrics of this wonderful song have been encouraging and growing me…. Here’s the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9jMculLSbc
Hope you enjoy it.
To God be the glory!
Keegan
Judy: Unfortunately, I'm not sure I know of any software that does that. I'll let you know if I come across any. Thanks for stopping by my blog, and I'll be sure to check out yours as well!
Keegan: As soon as I saw your comment I thought to myself, "That sounds like Keegan." I couldn't help but laugh when I seen your name at the bottom! But yeah, this is definitely an amazing song, and I was really excited to find one with TAN playing it. I almost put their song Satisfy up instead, which would've went with my post better, but there's just something about this song I couldn't resist.
In Christ,
Dakota
Thank you so much for visiting my blog! I hope you enjoy it... I enjoyed visiting yours as well. God bless you!
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