"God is most glorified in me when i am most satisfied in Him"

why am i talking about satisfaction in the Lord? i always knew it was important...but i guess it recently hit me that being satisfied in God is vital. since our human nature is wired to need and depend on something, to chase after something that will fill us up, like the things listed in the previous post, i realized that whatever i am finding my satisfaction in is what will define my life and me as a person. it's like when Jesus said, "for wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be also." 


even more importantly, my holiness is dependent upon my level of satisfaction in Him. think about when the serpent tempted eve...what did he do? he made her think that God was holding out on her...that He wasn't enough for her...that there was still more in store for her outside God's will. he caused her to become dissatisfied in the Lord. her dissatisfaction in God is what caused her to seek full satisfaction in something else and to fall into sin. isn't it the same with us? if we do not let our Lord and Savior meet all our needs, we will give all our time and affections to an idol. we will fall into sin. 


however, if i am fully satisfied in the Lord...if He is my source of delight, hope, security, strength, and joy...then i do not need to search for those things elsewhere. sin is not even appealing, because i realize its shallowness & insufficiency to provide those things for me. the more satisfied i am in God, the less sin there will be in my life, because i will not "need" it. 


john piper said that "God is most glorified in me when i am most satisfied in Him." i have heard that quote before and always believed it...but i recently truly understood it. He is most glorified in me when i'm most satisfied in Him, because He is glorified in the holiness of my life, which clearly can only come through satisfaction in Him. 

the master plan of God.

good morning lovelies! i am looking forward to a relaxing saturday. i hope everyone was able to watch the UK/OSU game last night...amazing! i am so proud of my wildcats.


anyway, back to this little study on satisfaction in God. i wanted to share a few thoughts and quotes with you from mike bickle's book.


you see, God gave us the desires listed in the last post, very intentionally. 


"the master plan of God is an amazing thing. He created a Bride for His Son, watched her fall into imperfection, and then offered His Son to redeem the Bride for Himself. all along God rested, confident in knowing He has endowed the Bride with longings she could not ignore. He knew the enemy would use those longings to manipulate Jesus' Bride. Even this did not make God nervous. He knew what He had to offer. as she has run from place to place trying to fulfill her longings, God has remained confident she would only find fulfillment in returning to the identity and destiny for which she was created -to be the Bride of Christ. she will have to come to a holy romance if she is ever to be truly happy." 


the emphasis on certain phrases is mine. the desires, expectations, and needs we have are good. they were intentionally put there by our Creator to draw us to Himself. these longings are designed to make us needy and dependent on Him. of course, the trouble comes when the enemy waves sin in front of our face and makes us believe that the sin will satisfy our longings. it looks like a remedy, but the truth is it separates us from God. 


mike bickle describes the devastating effects of sin so well: "the pleasures sin had to offer suddenly appear as they really are: cold, hollow, and always demanding our time, attention and energy while butchering our hearts piece by piece." 


is that not the truth? have you ever experienced a counterfeit to the satisfaction of God? it left you disappointed, ashamed, embarrassed, broken... etc. 


what counterfeits do we turn to? it's different for everybody, as the enemy knows how to bait each one of us. but here's a starting list: drunkenness, dependence on the opposite sex, flirtatiousness and immodesty, popularity, perfectionism, performance/striving for approval...im sure there are many more. these are easy to turn to...but they can draw us away from intimacy with God faster than we know. 


even still, as mike bickle says, the Lord is confident because He knows the hollowness of what we chase. He knows that sooner or later, chasing after sin and idols will get old...it will bring us to our knees because we do not feel perfectly loved or satisfied. 


for some it will take unthinkable wreckage to bring them to the Lord. but they will realize that He has always been worth whatever it cost them to be loved, and then healed, and finally satisfied and whole. 

satisfaction.

we all have a craving to be satisfied... and we will chase after that craving. what does it mean to be satisfied? the definition says that to satisfy is to fulfill the desires, expectations, needs, or demands of; to give full contentment to. 


dont we all have desires, expectations, needs, and demands? the question is, what are they?


we all desire love. perfect and unfailing love. a love that pursues.
we all desire to be accepted.
we all need to be found beautiful or worthy.
we all need peace and stability. 
we all desire to make a difference and make our lives count for something.
we all desire to enjoy our lives and to experience joy.


thats a list we came up with in bible study, which i think is pretty dead on. 


the seven longings of the human heart, by mike bickle, takes this even farther and talks about seven longings that every human has. the list we came up with actually matches most of the longings that are written in this book. they are:

1. the longing to be enjoyed by God
2. the longing for fascination
3. the longing for beauty
4. the longing for greatness
5. the longing for intimacy without shame
6. the longing to be wholehearted
7. the longing to make a deep and lasting impact


so i will leave with that and come back with more on our desires and our need and will to be satisfied. 


by the way, totally recommend mike bickle's book...it will give you so much insight into your own heart and why God created you the way He did. 


as for now, spending some time with boo. GO WILDCATS!