Matthew 17
5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"
I read this chapter twice and this verse could have been written in bold neon lights because it jumped out of the page to me. Just over 13 years ago, I heard a man named John Piper speak at an event called Passion in Austin, Texas. He made a statement that has echoed in my mind and my heart ever since that day. He said, "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him."
I have lived most of my life since then trying to find my most satisfaction in Him, not in others and not in stuff. Since having children, it's been harder to keep my focus, to be honest. I get a whole lot of satisfaction in them and I have to remember that God may be glorified when I am satisfied in them, but He is not most glorified. I always thought satisfaction was like pregnancy...you either are or your not. Is it possible to be slightly satisfied, almost satisfied or 90 percent satisfied?
I want to be "most satisfied" in God. I want to get the most enjoyment when I am who He made me to be, I love the way He created me to love and I serve the way He made me to serve. But even saying that, I'm not quite sure what that means. Talk to me friends. What offers you hints of satisfaction? Have you ever felt "most satisfied" in God? What was that like? I'm not sure I've tasted that kind of satisfaction in Him. I do like a good porch with a great view though...
I am not certain I am entirely in agreement with Piper's statement. Prior to Eve being created, God says it is not good that man be alone. This seems to be a recognition that God did not create us to be completely satisfied with just Him doesn't it? I don't think that diminishes God in any way, but speaks more to how he created us. St. Irenaeus said, "the glory of God is man fully alive". Christ said in John 10:10, "...I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." My question is, "What does life to the full, being fully alive look like?"
ReplyDeleteI look at your picture and long to be sitting on that porch, drinking in the beauty of the scene before me, slaking my thirst, as it were, at the well of beauty that God created for us. Enjoying one of the 'good gifts' that Father has bestowed on us, to the full.
"If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and to earnestly hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I suggest that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." - C.S. Lewis
ReplyDeleteI just don't want to be satisfied with mud pies.