God has used Troy Black’s ministry to bless and speak to me so many times. Recently Troy heard a word from the Lord saying God’s people are too often like waves. In the same way waves come into shore only to retreat into the ocean so too do we as Christians push into the presence of God only to retreat into this world. Sadly, this is a fairly good illustration of my spiritual life. I like ocean waves have come to the Lord, pressed into His presence, only to retreated back to the sins of the world.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” According to Jesus, righteousness satisfies. By now most of us have likely come to the conclusion that although sin can be fun and exciting it doesn’t truly satisfy. Sin leaves us feeling guilty, ashamed, empty, and unfulfilled. Yet, the question remains, if righteousness satisfies, why do I still sin?
In Jeremiah 2:13 the Lord spoke through His prophet saying, “for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” What the Lord God was saying was not only had His people rejected the source of fulfillment they had run after things which can never fulfill.
In the same way, I have tasted the living water. I have experienced the love, grace, and mercy of God in profound ways. He has saved me and filled me with the Holy Spirit. He has gifted me and begun to use me for His purpose and glory. He has given me a richness of life beyond what I could have ever imagined. Time in the presence of God is glorious. Words can’t describe the feeling of the manifest presence of God through the Holy Spirit.
Perhaps you have felt it too. It is the amazing feeling of communion with God when we pray and praise. It is the closeness of God we feel when we study His Word and do His will. It is amazing. God is the very source of life and fulfillment. Yet, I sometimes seek fulfillment in the things of this world, why? How is it possible, to have drunk of the living water which satisfies the sole and yet be thirsty for things of this world?
The answer is in part that we can become deceived into believing the lie that there is greater love, joy, and peace outside of the will of God. We convince ourselves that these fleshly desires do satisfy. Another reason we seek to be satisfied by the things of this world is that we stop drinking the living water and eating the bread of life. In our culture we often look for the quick fix. We want to set it and forget it. We want one and done. But that is not how God works. He wants us to be satisfied with the living water as we thirst for more and more of Him. He wants us to be satisfied with the bread of life as we hunger all the more for Him. As St. Bernard wrote, “We taste Thee, O Thou Living Bread, And long to feast upon Thee still: We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead And thirst our souls from Thee to fill.”
Like Mephibosheth in the Bible, we have an opportunity to sit at the very table of the King. But it is up to us stay. We have the option, whenever we want to dine else ware. Like the Israelites in the Bible who ate mana from heaven we have the opportunity to experience supernatural fulfillment from God. Yet the Israelites had to collect the mana every day. We too must go to God daily for a fresh filling!
I do not want to live in deception believing true fulfilment can be found anywhere apart from God. I want to continue to hunger and thirst for righteousness. I want to be filled with fountains of living water and drink deep of the Holy Spirit of God. I want to be satisfied with the goodness God provides with the Bread of life.
In closing I want to share a prayer written by A. W. Tozer in his book, The Pursuit of God. I hope you make this your prayer today as well.
Tozer prayed, “O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.” Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
Brian H. Fontaine 