Where Do You Find Your Satisfaction?

I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness. (Psalm 17:15 ESV)

The Rolling Stones, an English rock band formed in London, released the song (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction in 1965. Lead singer Mick Jagger said the song was rooted in the way he experienced the vast commercialism of America during the band’s tours. The beloved animated special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, was released the same year; it too made pointed references to commercialism encroaching on our culture.

Not much has changed over the past 58 years. Incredibly, the Rolling Stones are still touring, and every Christmas season we chuckle when Charlie Brown exclaims that “Even my own dog has gone commercial!” But it’s not just Snoopy who is caught up in materialism; both inside the church and outside it, commercialism has a stranglehold on far too many people.

So the question each of us must ask ourselves and honestly answer is this: Where do you find your satisfaction?

There really are only two choices: You can find satisfaction in your stuff or find satisfaction in your Savior. When God created us in His image, He made sure there would be nothing in this created world that would give us deep satisfaction of the heart. Pursuing anything in this world to give you satisfaction is putting that thing in the place of the only One who truly can satisfy – Jesus Christ.

Here is a biblical truth to consider: When your heart is beating for satisfaction in anything smaller than Jesus, you will never find it. The glory of creation is to be received and enjoyed. The beauty, intricacy, and magnificence of all the sights and sounds in the created order blesses us deep in our soul. But none of that was ever designed to satisfy the deepest longings of the human heart. Only the Creator God can do that.

Seeking satisfaction in the things of this world will always keep us pursuing satisfaction and never finding it. We will sound like the Rolling Stones, groaning, “I can’t get no satisfaction!” But if we seek God first in all things, satisfaction will naturally follow. God is the only satisfaction we truly seek, whether we know it or not. Only God can satisfy the eternal ache in our hearts. Finding our satisfaction in Christ alone will cause us to experience rest in our restlessness and find contentment in our discontentment.

Where have you been seeking your satisfaction lately? Seeking satisfaction in anything and asking God to satisfy us with what is created is a formula for frustration. But seeking God in all things will automatically result in the satisfaction we seek in the depths of our heart.

This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!