It is interesting although painful to seek out what satisfies us in life. When we were a baby, we started off with water and milk, then baby food and so forth. As we grow older, we generally want more. We want steak dinners and heavy meals. It seems we go through life on a quest for satisfaction. However, it seems the more we search, the less satisfaction we find. The more we get “stuff,” the more “stuff” we want.
Satan is such a great deceiver. He influences us to feed our flesh. We fail to realize the flesh is never satisfied. It is sad to see how divorce, which was just about unheard of fifty to sixty years ago, is now what is considered to be the norm. People are surprised if you have not been divorced within three to five years of marriage and more surprised if you have a happy healthy marriage. It seems society and culture is now comparing marriage to a three to five year prison sentence, and hopefully after good behavior you will be released early. For some reason, the term ‘til death do us part’ now means until we do not like each other anymore. Sadly enough, we seem to use the word love without knowing what it truly means.
We soon become addicted to what we think satisfies but when it is too late, we see they bring no satisfaction whatsoever. Many people try to glorify alcohol and drunkenness as a way out. Being that they do not know where true satisfaction lies, on their journey seeking for what satisfies, they look forward to drinking, partying endless nights away in certain places, killing their bodies, but worse destroying their souls at a rapid pace. The same can be said for drugs and sex. I have never heard a child say I want to be a drunk, a drug addict, or a prostitute (or all three) when I grow up. So what happened? A terrible end to seeking satisfaction.
How many people become addicted to work? They feel it is all that they have and their lives revolve around their jobs. However, when the job comes to an end, they are utterly destroyed, feeling like their life has been ripped apart from them. The worse is seeking satisfaction through money. Money can never satisfy. Money is not the root of evil, but the love of money is. We are greedy. We want it all. Sadly enough, if we had it all, we would still want more. If we were to have ten million dollars, the follow day (if that long), we would be thinking of how to make ten million and one dollars.
I remember when I would be up wide awake in the middle of the night. I was surrounded by my television, DVR, ONDEMAND, computer, video game system, tons of music and videos on the computer, and just look around and say “I’m bored.” I had everything around me, but nothing within me, to sustain me, to satisfy me. I had no idea what could satisfy. I would just continue to fill my surroundings with more and more “stuff” and they would satisfy for a week or so (if that long) but then I would go back to my state of nothingness. How many of us have been there? Up in the middle of the night just wondering what will it take to make us happy? I know I have been there. The devil throws many false senses of satisfaction at us, whether being people, sex, work, money, alcohol, drugs, etc.
To make it worse, we fail to realize there are consequences to our desires. Sin is a three step process motivated by the quest for satisfaction. First we see something that seems satisfying, then we covet (really desire it), and then we take it. Although it seems we take it, whatever it may be, it really takes hold of our lives, our livelihood, and our souls.
How many marriages, broken families, addictions to alcohol, drugs, and sex, diseases transmitted through drugs and/or sex (in a lot of cases fatal), unplanned pregnancies, prison terms, single-parent homes, murders, public scandals, terrorist attacks, and just plain unhappiness and resentment towards the world stems from the search of what satisfies. Too many! Sure we may have some fun leading up to the event, but if we can look forward past the sin and see the consequences of the sin, it is a very dark and gloomy future ahead.