Satisfaction Guaranteed - Part II

By Clarissa Ramos

"O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. I stay close to you; your right hand upholds me." - Psalm 63:1-8

As we saw in Part I, man is a restless being, and satisfaction eludes him. Try as we might, there is no worldly attainment that can or will satisfy us for long. Though we were to place all our confidence in it, nothing (this side of heaven) can sustain the peace and joy that we so fervently pursue. Nothing is ever what we expect it to be.

What we fail to come to terms with is that we were made to find fulfillment in the Lord. Thus, our ability to gain and retain satisfaction is directly linked to our relationship with God (though not necessarily to our godly endeavors - there is a difference). Our level of satisfaction is proportionate to the level of God's presence in our lives. The more we invest in our walk with Christ, the greater the level of personal satisfaction. It's a cause and effect relationship.

When we begin to focus our mind and energy on deepening our personal relationship with the Lord (instead of wandering in search of the next "opportunity" for satisfaction), two requirements become strikingly clear:

1. The Lord must be the source of all we need or desire and the sole object of our pursuits (we must be totally abandoned to seeking the Lord).
2. Faith and obedience are the road to satisfaction.

Consider these words from John Piper:

"We should never think of obedience as something unattached to saving faith as though the one could exist for long without the other. Obedience to Christ is the necessary result of true faith... Trusting in God to meet our needs breaks the power of sin's promise to make us happier. But what we need to see here is that the essence of faith is being satisfied with all that God is for us in Christ.

This statement emphasizes two things. One is the God-centeredness of faith. It is not merely the promises of God that satisfy us. It is all that God himself is for us. Faith embraces God - not just his promised gifts - as our treasure. Faith banks its hope not just on the real estate of the age to come, but on the fact that God will be there (Revelation 21:3). And even now what faith embraces most earnestly is not just the reality of sins forgiven (as precious as that is) but the presence of the living Christ in our hearts and the fullness of God himself (Ephesians 3:17-19).

The other thing emphasized in defining faith as being satisfied with all that God is for us is the term "satisfaction." Faith is not just believing facts about God. It is not just intellectual assent. Faith is the quenching of the soul's thirst at the fountain of God. The biblical evidence for this can be seen most easily in John 6:35. "Jesus said to them, ' I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.'" 'Believing' means 'coming' to Jesus to eat and drink the 'bread of life' and the 'living water' (John 4:10, 14) which are nothing other than Jesus himself. And when we eat this food and drink this water we are satisfied with Jesus. That is the meaning of faith. We rest in him. Here is the secret of the power of faith to break the enslaving force of sinful attractions. If the heart is satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus, the power of sin to lure us away from the wisdom of Christ is broken. And we will love holiness because it is an expression of the personality of the One who brings us so much satisfaction." - The Pleasures Of God (247-248)

A life lived in obedience to the Lord and in holiness before the Lord breeds satisfaction. The believer in Christ must never look begrudgingly on living a life totally abandoned to the Lord and to obedience to Him. Rather, it is a tremendous opportunity to experience true and lasting joy and contentment, and the person who forfeits such an opportunity runs the risk of living a life devoid of satisfaction.

"The Christian living in disobedience also lives devoid of joy and hope. But when he begins to understand that Christ has delivered him from the reign of sin, when he begins to see that he is united to Him Who has all power and authority, and that it is possible to walk in obedience, he begins to have hope. And as he hopes in Christ, he begins to have joy. In the strength of this joy he begins to overcome the sins that so easily entangle him. He then finds that the joy of a holy walk is infinitely more satisfying than the fleeting pleasures of sin." - Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit Of Holiness (156)