268 Church » Weekly Devotional http://www.268church.org Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:14:41 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 Satisfied in the Love of God http://www.268church.org/2009/08/satisfied-in-the-love-of-god/ http://www.268church.org/2009/08/satisfied-in-the-love-of-god/#comments Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:12:56 +0000 Pastor David http://www.268church.org/newsite/?p=128 The battle for love rages in our hearts. We desperately seek the love of God, and yet, we crave the love of others. Only eternal love satisfies, though, and when we have tasted the pleasures of eternity, we have come face-to-face with the love we will one day inherit without measure. Until then, we are tossed between the eternal love of God, and the fleeting temporal love of others. As we live between these two fountains of love, we are constantly drawn away by the desires of our flesh to find satisfaction and hope in the love we wrongly think we can squeeze from others. It will never satisfy. So, God in His grace and mercy, begins to wean us from temporal love and nurse us with His eternal love, and the only way this happens is if we are separated from the earthly things we believe will satisfy. Just as a child hates to be weaned from his mother’s breast, so we hate to be weaned from the milk of this life. Spouses waiver in their passions for us. Children find guidance and intimacy in other relationships. Friends falter.

Only when we are weaned from these sources of pleasures can the Word and Spirit of God become our solid food—it is then that we can know eternal love. When we are rejected, filled with pain and anger from losing the delights of this life, then our hearts can be reoriented to value God’s love as the surpassing treasure of this life. Does weaning hurt? Yes. Are we cast into devastating loneliness? Yes. Do we lose hope and favor with our spouses and children and friends? Yes! We were designed to feel and desire and hurt. If pain did not accompany rejection and fleeting love, then God’s love would mean little to us. In our wounding, though, God reveals a glimpse of eternity and shows us that temporal love is, in fact, temporal, and that His eternal life is, in fact, eternally satisfying. His love for us is so fierce and tenacious, He will find a way to keep us dissatisfied with the things of this life, so we can find our life in Him. Then, and only then, will we know for ourselves the truth of the Psalmist’s words: “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25,26).

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