Your Daily Devotional for December 27, 2007

 

December 27,  2007

 

 

Finding Satisfaction

by Dr. Paul Chappell

 

 

"Every good and perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."

 

James 1:17

 

 

God has a plan for your life. It is so much greater than you or I could possibly imagine. The God that created the heavens and the earth wants to meet with you today. He wants to bless you and show you things that you never thought possible. Jesus said that He came that we would have life and have it more abundantly. However, from time to time Satan will try to get us off track, discourage us, tempt us and try to entice us to do that which is evil and attempt to thwart God's awesome plan for your life. While sin looks pleasurable at first, it is always rotten to the core.

 

In James 1:17 we are told "every good and perfect gift is from above." In the most general sense, I can say that every good thing that has ever happened to me in my life can be traced to God. The word perfect here means complete, wanting nothing. God tells us "I have a complete package here for you called 'life.' You don't need to dabble in those other things. That will only take you away from what I have prepared for you. Just keep yourself in love with Me."

 

Let me put it to you simply. Do you love God? Are you completely satisfied with God or does it take a little bit of the old life to make you happy? Is God enough for you? Jude 20 says, "...keep yourselves in the love of God." God has given us so much. He has given us His Word, His mercies new every morning, beautiful sunrises and breathtaking sunsets. He has given me an amazing wife and four lovely children. God even gave Himself, dying a criminal's death for the sins of the world, and all He asks from us is that we love Him!

 

Unfortunately, many Christians today are like the sheep that leave the fold. They say, "Lord, I really appreciate all those nice things that You've done, but I'm going to go do my own thing over here. I'll take a bit of what You have to offer and a bit of what the world can give me." May God deliver us from that type of Christianity! There is pleasure in sin for a season, but the end is destruction!

 

Some sins come when we take a perfectly natural longing or ambition and try desperately to fulfill it without God. Not only is that a sin, but it is a perverse distortion of the image of the Creator in us. Anything good that is in us is not of ourselves, but from Him. If we want to become better fathers, mothers, neighbors or coworkers, it will only come about by having the fruit of His Holy Spirit manifest in us by a true yielding to God. Any attempt to be anything other than a dirty, rotten sinner without Jesus Christ is impossible and will end in broken promises and fruitless frustration.

 

Maybe someone today needs to say, "God I just want to be in love with You the way that I was when I first got saved. God I want to come back to that place where You were all that I ever needed." He wants to be your complete satisfaction. Whatever your need is, your Heavenly Father is waiting to hear from you. What an awesome thought!

 

Daily Bible Reading

Zechariah 1-4 • Revelation 18

---

================================================
THIS IS AN AUTOMATED MESSAGE PLEASE DO NOT REPLY
================================================
Manage your online subscriptions at
http://www.dailyintheword.org/email/user-login.aspx

To Unsubscribe from this list please follow this link
http://www.dailyintheword.org/email/user-unsubscribe.aspx?s=4159&l=1