It is difficult for us to be content. It seems that we always want more. I have known people who always lament for the last place they lived or a previous time in their lives. Even in the church there are always those who long for the “good old days”. Do you know what’s funny about that? When we are living in those “good old days” we don’t appreciate it at the time.
We all have a vacuum in our souls which is meant to be filled by God. When it’s not, we fill it with other things such as money, fame or position. Do you ever notice that when we achieve those things that it is never enough? That’s because we are filling it with the wrong things.
One of the greatest Christian minds in history was a 17th century thinker named Blaise Pascal. Referring to the spiritual condition of mankind he famously said, “There is a God–shaped vacuum in the heart of each man, which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.”
Believers sometimes have the same problem. I have gone through times in my life where I was so busy doing things in the church that I totally ignored my personal relationship with God. When we leave God out of our lives, we can’t replace that void with anything else.
In thinking about this blog article, I remembered an old song called “People need the Lord” which goes:
Everyday they pass me byI can see it in their eyes
Empty people filled with care
Headed who knows where
On they go through private pain
Living fear to fear
Laughter hides their silent cries
Only Jesus hears
People need the Lord, people need the Lord
At the end of broken dreams, He's the open door
People need the Lord, people need the Lord
When will we realize people need the Lord?
We live in an angry world today where people would rather pull out a gun to shoot someone rather than resolving differences. People are angry because they aren’t happy and some just don’t know why they are angry and it’s because of the void that God needs to fill.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”
We live in a world where we are good filling our lives with things that on bring temporary happiness and fulfillment. People are haunted by the fear of being alone and restless in how to remedy it. Just ask yourself - and be completely honest about it - are you satisfied with your life? What are you striving for that you think will be the final place where you can be completely and totally content?
I once worked with someone who always talked about retirement. He looked forward to it and made plans for it. Everything he was looking for in contentment was in that retirement. A few months after he retired, he was getting ready to attend our office Christmas party when he suffered a massive heart attack and died.
The Bible tells us to lay our treasures in heaven (Matthew 6:19). Whatever we have here will not last or will be stolen from us. It is important that we put our emphasis on our relationship with God which no one can take away from us. Nothing can separate us from His love. That's a pretty good investment don't you think?
