Flood Waters – Why Money, Sex and Comfort will Never Satisfy Us

It has been an interesting past 48 hours in my household.

It was the day after Christmas. We had hung up, plugged in, and organized all of our new gifts. The day we had been waiting weeks for had just past, and we were enjoying the recent addition to our already many blessings.

Then, we noticed water on the carpet.

It had been raining all day, and water had made its way through the foundation. The entire basement floor soon became drenched in water.

Instantly, we began unplugging electronics, moving everything off of the carpet, and lifting furniture onto cans.

Our cherished gifts that were new and exciting only 24 hours ago are now trying to be salvaged from water, mold and mildew.

Bitterness has crept into my heart over my room being drenched and the inconvenience that it brings. But as I sit in the upstairs part of the house waiting for the basement to dry, God has begun speaking to my heart.

My frustration over the past 48 is actually extremely common. In fact, we all feel it. This frustration and disappointment comes from a result of worshiping idols.

An idol is anything that we worship that isn’t God.

Human beings were created to worship. The very fiber of our being craves to worship and be filled and satisfied by what we are worshiping. God made us that way. And He made us in such a way that when we worship Him, we are completely and fully satisfied.

Everybody worships, even if they aren’t a Christian.

Author and speaker Jeff Bethke wrote, “You might say, I don’t believe in God, but the bible says: “not possible.” See, everyone has a god whether or not it’s the god of the gospel. You might not believe in God, but everyone has that one thing that’s king. Even the dictionary defines God as “whatever we make supreme.”

Ever since Genesis 2, human beings have chosen to turn away from worshiping God, and worship themselves. We freely chose to turn from God, which broke this perfect relationship between man and God.

But, God had a plan to restore this relationship. Romans 5:8 says, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” While we were worshiping everything except God, God pursued us. He came and died for us, so that we could have that relationship with Him again. So that we could worship Him freely and spend eternity worshiping Him and being satisfied in Him.

This is INCREDIBLE news, isn’t it?!

The crazy thing is, we are so quick to forget it. We are so quick to turn away from worshiping the Creator, and we worship the things He has created instead.

A problem with worshiping these other things is that they never truly satisfy us, because we were created to only be satisfied by God Himself. So we worship those other things in hopes that they’ll make us happy. We place all of our worth, value and hope in something, and then it lets us down. It doesn’t satisfy, so then we just try to get more of that thing, hoping it actually satisfies the next time. And it becomes a viscous cycle of more.

More.

More.

And we will never be satisfied.

God is so good to not let us be satisfied by these other things. Because eventually, we get to a point of frustration and desperation. And in this moment, we turn to God and remember that we should have been worshiping Him the whole time.

He satisfies.

So ask yourself, what are you worshiping?

If you aren’t sure, ask yourself another question. What is the one thing in your life that if taken away, you feel like you couldn’t live any longer?

Whatever your answer is tell you what you are worshiping.

So really, what are you worshipping? Is it relationships? Money? Sex? Religion? Comfort? Possessions? I was forced to ask myself this question when feelings of bitterness crept in as my room was flooded.

None of these things will ever satisfy the core of our beings. Only God can.

To end, I wanted to share a short Youtube video and lyrics that really address worship, idols, and God’s grace.

He is better than anything this world can offer.

“He was thinking of you and me 

with every whip that beat Him, 

knowing full well we’d still go, 

'nah, I don’t really need Him.'

 But like a father, he couldn’t bear his children to not be free.

 So He tied up that tree, paid our fee, 

for specks of dirt like you and me

So my plea is

 let Him restore His proper place. 

I promise you He loves you right now. 

Just trust in His grace.

 Because before I leave, 

I’ll leave you with this:

What of those other things took nails in their wrists?

 Or how about when was the last time money or sex forgave you?

 When did your boyfriend set you free 

from all you’re enslaved to?

 What else died so that you could be made new?

 Or when was the last time the world promised satisfaction, and actually came through?”

-Jeff Bethke