During Week 3 of our “A Confident Heart” study we reflected on one of my very favorite passages from Psalm 90:14 as we explored the theme “Satisfied.”
“Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”
Each moment of every day, we are bombarded with things that claim they can satisfy us. Whether it’s finding fulfillment in moving up the corporate ladder or being satisfied in more “stuff”, the disappointing truth is that these things ever live up to the claims they make. Even very GOOD things in our lives, relationships with our family members, helping other people, or religious activities can leave us empty if we look to the gifts to satisfy instead of the Giver. The good news is that there IS something, really Someone, who can truly satisfy.
What I love about the verse above is that it gives us the key to having a joyful, happy life… it comes in looking to GOD to satisfy instead of all those things. It is true that God may USE my job or my family or material items to bring me joy and satisfaction, but the joy and satisfaction are really coming from God, NOT those things or people. When we are satisfied completely 100% in God’s unfailing love in the morning… we WILL find joy in each and every day, because we won’t look to all the other things to fill us; we’re already full!
We see this play out in the interesting story of Sarai and Abram in the book of Genesis. God had promised Abram (later re-named Abraham) that he would be the father of the God’s people… that he would have many descendants… as many as the stars in the sky! The only problem with this, at least in Abram’s eyes is that he and his wife Sarai (later re-named Sarah) didn’t even have ONE child, let alone many. On top of all that, they were old… really old… well beyond the age of having children.
Instead of trusting God’s love and plan for their lives, they decide to take matters into their own hands. Sarai convinces Abram to have a child with Hagar, Sarai’s maidservant. Abram agrees, but God doesn’t. He comes back to them and says, “No, Abram and Sarai, YOU will have a son.” Sure enough, 25 YEARS after God’s initial promise, He brings Isaac into this world through Sarah.
One of my favorite parts of this story is how powerful God’s grace is throughout the whole story. As soon as they started to do things their own way, God could have simply said, “Okay, done with you; you couldn’t trust me, I guess I”ll have to find someone else.” BUT HE DOESN’T. He remains faithful even when Abram and Sarai don’t. The same is true in our lives. God’s is faithful, and his love is constant. We see this grace again in Sarah’s reaction to now having a son:
Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” (Genesis 21:6)
She laughed. She didn’t wallow in shame. She didn’t sit in regret. She didn’t beat herself up for not trusting God. She saw the blessing for what it was, accepted the beautiful grace of God… and laughed.
As we discover more and more each day what it means to be satisfied completely in Christ and his love for us, may we too, laugh and rejoice and be glad… all our days!
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