After a filling dinner at Cici’s Pizza with my family tonight, we took a stroll through the parking lot to walk off some calories. As we passed the Hibachi grill, the door swung open and someone said, “Ooh, that smells good.”
I felt quite the opposite.
A powerful thought hit me: this is what it means to be filled with the Spirit. Food does not smell good to those who are already full. If I am full of God, I will not be hungry for the world; the world will even be distasteful to me. However, if I am not full of God, if I am not satisfied wholly with Him, the world will smell wonderful, and my hunger pains will tempt me to give in. “Of course I need food!” my flesh will say. “I can’t starve.”
Too true.
We are meant to be full—full of God. This is the secret to not loving the world. Thomas Chalmers once gave a powerful sermon entitled “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection,” in which he explained this point: to be free from the love of the world, we must be captivated with a higher Love—a higher Affection. His Name is Jesus.
"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lusts of it; but he does the will of God abides forever.” --1 John 2:15-17
--12.31.10
Glad to see you got your blog up and running! Are these previous journal entries?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the inspiration! And yes, most of these were from over Christmas break.
ReplyDeleteAwesome insight, Suzanne. This post reminded me of a verse I read the other day... "For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness." (Ps. 107:9) He satisfies the emptied, longing soul, not the soul already filled with the things of the world. Am I hungry for Him?
ReplyDeletePress on! :)
<3,
Kayla