Satisfaction Guaranteed

Why is it that we are never satisfied with material things…

We have a home, but it doesn’t have enough room or the kitchen doesn’t have enough counter space, the laundry room needs this or needs that, I wish I had more storage, the closets are too small. We have a new vehicle but it isn’t as new as the neighbor’s, it doesn’t have ALL the latest features, it isn’t the right color, we really need the one with more room and so on. We purchase the new iPad or iPhone and in less than a month we are trying to sell it on facebook because Apple is coming out with something new. We go on a shopping spree and purchase a new wardrobe but in 5 days we complain because we can’t find anything to wear. We have everything we could possibly need and so much more but yet we still want this or more of that…we are never satisfied! Even in our day to day life we are never content with the way things go. When we are sick we get upset because the doctor can’t see us “right then” or “today” or maybe we get frustrated because we had to wait 30 minutes in the waiting room before even seeing the doctor. The plumber or electrician can’t drop what they are doing to fix our problem immediately. Doesn’t the A/C repairman know we are in the south? How does he think we are supposed to survive in this cramped house in this heat? Traffic is always too congested or we just don’t understand why they have to do road construction every 10 miles. The restaurant took too long to seat us, and then the server forgot to top off our drink after we asked them, not to mention the food wasn’t even that good. We. are. never. satisfied.

…but we are satisfied with our spiritual life being mediocre or non-existent?

When it comes to our spiritual life, we are content with “us 4 and no more” at a prayer meeting on Monday night. We make excuses about the Wednesday night crowd being slim because “well it’s the middle of the work week, people are tired”. We think Sunday morning was great because the camera angle was good and it “looked” like we had a good crowd on Facebook Live but in reality over half of the seats in the sanctuary were empty. We count Sunday night as a success because the praise team sounded flawless, we had our little shout, got our little blessing, pastor preached and let us out before it was even dark and we had a fun time at the restaurant with our “church friends”. We feel accomplished that we got up to spend 5 minutes in prayer and do a quick 10-minute uplifting devotion at the beginning our hour long fitness workout before leaving for an 8-hour workday. Oh, yes, we have family prayer, it happens every evening at the dinner table, we hold hands and say an extra long blessing over our food! << That one is pretty laughable but sadly it’s true. We teach our kids to read the Bible – 5 minutes before we leave for Sunday school so they can get their extra points at their Sunday school class. Speaking of kids, they can’t sit still in church or go through an entire service without going to the bathroom or falling asleep but they are good for hours in front of a TV or gaming station. We apologize to the youth pastor or the children’s director for our kids not being able to attend the church event geared especially for them but we never have to apologize to the coach for our kids not being at the ball game.

We think we have life figured out, but we seriously have our priorities so backwards. What would happen if we reversed the paragraphs above? How differently would we view life? Would we be “satisfied”? Yes! A great big, YES!

We would start our day thanking God that we woke up with a roof over our heads, running water, and indoor plumbing. We would look at the lack of storage as a blessing because that is less to have to clean out and you never have to worry about being a hoarder << yes you can laugh! We would get in our vehicle and be thankful that it runs and that we can afford the gas to get to where we need to go. If it happens to break down, we would be grateful that we have that outdated iPhone 6 to call for help. We would go into that small closet and be thankful that we have an abundance of clothes to wear even if they are from goodwill (all the thrifty shoppers say amen). We would have compassion at the doctors office because our cough wouldn’t seem like much when we looked around at the single mom or dad taking care of a special needs child or the grief-stricken family that the doctor had to take “extra” time with to explain that there was simply nothing more that he could do. Yes, we would even be understanding when we had to wait until the next day to get our lights back on or toilet unclogged and fans will do just fine until the A/C can be repaired. Instead of being frustrated that traffic made us late for work, we would say a prayer over the person that was involved in the accident while thanking God that we were not involved in it because we were delayed by the construction. We would be thankful for the opportunity to eat out at a nice restaurant and for the quality family time we spent together while waiting on our table. Life would be so much more satisfying.

We would earnestly pray and touch heaven for souls to be saved at prayer meeting on Monday night. With enthusiasm we would invite our co-workers to be at our mid-week Wednesday night service to hear Pastor’s exciting new series! Sunday morning would be standing room only because we have been excited all week about what God is doing and we have shared that excitement with everyone we have come in contact with throughout the week. Sunday night would be a Holy Ghost explosion and we would linger in His presence long after the dismissal. We would get so lost in our morning devotion and prayer time that we would loose track of time and only have time to exercise 20 minutes of our scheduled hour but yet somehow all of our fitness goals would be met. Our joy and peace would remain even in the most stressful workdays. Our family dinner discussion would be about what the children learned in Sunday school followed by a time of family prayer and Bible reading after dinner was finished. Our kids would be taught respect for the house of God and how to truly worship. Church activities would always come before any “extracurricular activities” and there would be no question as to whether or not we were attending a regular scheduled church service. Life would truly be so much more satisfying.

The Bible tells us in Matthew 6:31-33

Therefore take not thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?…for your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

That is satisfaction guaranteed!