Christ Alone

Psalm 63:^3-5 “for your love and kindness are better to me than life itself. How I praise you! I will bless you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer. At last I shall be fully satisfied; I will praise you with great joy.” (LB)

You need to know that your praise does not make God bigger. Your praise does not make God stronger. God is God all by Himself with or without your praise. The truth is that praise is a privilege. And every time you allow entitlement to steal from your praise, it reduces God in your life and the influence of God in your life. And the only person that loses is you. Entitlement is such a dangerous spirit and we need to eradicate it completely from our hearts, lives, and our sphere of influence. You need to shoot entitlement down the minute you spot it. Have zero tolerance for entitlement. Once it raises its ugly head, what do you do? You shoot it down.

So, could it be a good thing that we do not get everything we want in life? St. Augustine says, “Our hearts are restless until they find rest in Thee.” So, our unfulfilled desires actually remind us of where our true satisfaction comes from. And it is from Christ and Christ alone. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 “…Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me, My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness. Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.” (MSG)

The thorn in Paul’s flesh put him in a place where he was back to what matters most which is that the true satisfaction of the human being comes from Christ and Christ alone. Not from the child, house, spouse, or the better paying job. But from Christ and Christ alone. Until we realize that, we will keep thinking that if we can just get more money, we will be fine. However, for those who have worked long enough and lived long enough, you can affirm that the money you have now used to be a dream years ago. But you still want more, why? It is because it is not the money that will satisfy you. It is Christ alone that can satisfy you. Christ alone!

Prayer (song): All I have is You. All I have is You. My soul is satisfied with You. All I have is You. All I have is You. My soul has found rest in You. On this foundation Lord I rest in You. You are my passion. You are life in its fullness. There’ll be no me without You, without You. Amen!