What is it that you’re looking for?

Is it purpose?  Success?  Position?

Or maybe it’s a person.  The perfect date.  The perfect spouse. The perfect children.

We spend much of our life pining away for something we don’t have or for the next new gadget that comes along. 

I have an incredible husband.  Four wonderful children and FIVE beautiful grandchildren.  I could list a thousand blessings (I’ve already done it several times in my journals!), and yet, the human side of me never seems to be satisfied.

Why is that?

I hate that in myself.  When I look closely at my imperfections, I see more than I really want to see.  When I see TRUTH, it’s the same way.  Often we think we want truth, but in reality, it’s a little more than we want to accept.  Truth says. “What the world has to offer never satisfies.”  When I look at life through the eyes of this world, not only is my judgement cloudy, but I very easily can get drawn in to an unhealthy perspective.  I know that sounds harsh, but the reality is–

We can never allow people or power or position or possessions to be the coins that fill our happiness meter.

When time runs out on our pursuit, or when disappointments inevitably come along–and our meter is on empty, there is only one thing left–only one relationship that can fill the empty places.

The one I have with God.

Deep inside is an emptiness that can only be filled with the One who created us.  He created this world and all of its beauty for us to enjoy, but too often we worship something created–instead of the Creator.

We think that comfort is a right and that wealth is a prize, but some of the happiest people I have met on this planet live in difficult places and have next to nothing.  What they do have is Jesus.  The joy that comes from knowing Him eclipses our circumstances and gives us HOPE.

Hope not based on this world and it’s loose change, but in the King of Glory and the riches of His eternal plan..

Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day.  For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory.  So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.  2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Just as there are two sides to every coin, there are two aspects of God that we cannot ignore.  On one side we see God’s love: His compassion, His mercy.  On the other side is an aspect we cannot and should not ignore: God’s holiness.  Though they may seem opposite, the two must go together.  Doing our best to separate them, we only seem to want the loving part, ignoring God’s holiness. Without love we wouldn’t experience God’s mercy, but without holiness we could never have righteousness.  Because He is holy, we know He is just.  And good.  And right.

If you read the book of Jeremiah, you will understand why they called Jeremiah the “weeping prophet”.   When I read this book I can’t help but think of our culture today.  God used Jeremiah to warn time and again of the consequence of blatant sin against a holy God.  He offered them a way out, but they not only rejected the offer, they mocked the messenger.   It was a sad time in history.

Unfortunately, the story of human existence has repeated itself far too often in history.  “In God We Trust” has become only a coined phrase that has quite a satirical ring to it…

We desire that coin more than we do a trustworthy God.

From the dawn of creation to the fall of man–from now until He returns to call us home, He remains the same: yesterday, today and forever.  We are the ones who change, flipping from one side of the coin to the other until we are spinning out of control.  Falling farther and farther away from His truth.  A sad chapter in our story.  It doesn’t have to be my personal story.  Our yours.

The good news is, there is a redeemer.  A place you can cash all of it in.  Take all of that loose change and do something meaningful with it.

Jeremiah’s job was a hard one, but the message he carried always rang with HOPE:

 ^“For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. You will call to Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”

Jeremiah 29:11-13

These verses have always brought such comfort and hope to me, personally.  I know that no matter where life takes me or the circumstances I might find myself in, that I CAN TRUST HIS PLAN.   I memorized these verses long ago, and there are several others in the book of Jeremiah that I want to memorize, I still chose this verse for my Scripture Memory Challenge:

Here’s why:  I know that many of you have never memorized this very important verse–or grasped it’s meaning.  I know that it’s a verse that I need to be reminded of often.  So many of the difficulties we face in life would be avoided if we would just remember to do this FIRST.  Before we rush ahead.  Before we make a mistake.  Before we go our own way.  SEEKING HIM is BASIC to the Christian life–and crucial to our existence.  He created us with a desire for something more than this world offers–and I’m not just talking about heaven–or eternity. He gives us the resources to know the GOD OF THE UNIVERSE, and to live our lives with purpose and meaning.  If you’ve not ever really considered trusting Him, won’t you at least seek Him today?  He’s given us His Holy Word: The Bible.  A great place to start would be the book of John.  Read His story.  See if your eyes aren’t opened to the possibility that He IS real.  That He does care.  AND that His ways are always best and right and good.  I’d love to have a conversation with you if you’d like to know more about a relationship with Him.  Read my FAITH page, HERE, to know how that can happen.  If you would like to personally email me @ wateringcanblog@yahoo.com, I would love to help answer any questions you have as you SEEK HIM.

I’m at the very least half-way through this journey called LIFE, and the more I have grown in my knowledge of and relationship with God, the less I desire the things of this world, and the more I desire HIM.  Not only do I have an increasing desire to spend time in His word, but I long for those “God moments”–when I see Him so obviously working in my life and the lives of others.  Look around.  He’s what you’re really seeking.

You can have all this world, but give me Jesus,