Satisfied

If you know anything about me, you know that I am a "foodie". I very much enjoy food and trying new things and going to new places all over the world and sampling the local cuisine. And if you are a foodie as well, you know how fun it is to do this, you also know what I mean when I say that when you try something new, and it is REALLY good, it just makes you happy, and sort of gives you that "wow, this is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G" feeling. Sometimes the food is so good that there is no need for anything sweet afterward.

Well, tonight, I just had one of those moments, but not with food...I had it during my devo time. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Jeremiah 15:16,

"Your words were found, and I ate them,
And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart;
For I am called by Your name,
O LORD God of hosts."

I love this verse because I relate to it so much. One, because I'm a foodie and so the analogy naturally works in my mind, and two, because I truly do feel this way about the Bible and the Word of God. And not just about the Bible, but about spiritual truths.

I had barely started my devotional time tonight, when I was hit with one of those truths. I know this quote almost by heart now as I have read this devotional for so many years. Once again this quote has nailed me in the heart, reminding both of how much the Lord loves me, and how I am to serve HIM, and not focus my eyes on the people around me.

Matthew 20:28a says,

"Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister"

and Mr. Oswald Chambers had this to say,

"If we are devoted to the cause of humanity, we shall soon be crushed and broken-hearted, for we shall often meet with more ingratitude from men than we would from a dog; but if our motive is love to God, no ingratitude can hinder us from serving our fellow men . . . When we realize that Jesus Christ has served us to the end of our meanness, our selfishness, and sin, nothing that we meet with from others can exhaust our determination to serve men for His sake."

I hope I didn't take so long to lead into this great piece of truth that is was lost on you. How huge is this?!?! So often we take our eyes off of Jesus and serving HIM alone, and we put them on those around us, we begin to serve man, our boss, our co-workers, people at church, our family....all of which is totally and completely good, providing that while we are serving them, our EYES and our FOCUS and our HEART remains gazing on Christ. We can get so down, and depressed and frustrated when we are doing things for 'man' because we are expecting them to 'notice' us and to give us some sort of acknowledgment for what we are doing. Then when the acknowledgment doesn't come our way, we are angry! "How dare they not notice how much I am serving them!" That right there should show us where our hearts are...where our focus is.

As Paul tells us, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men.

When our hearts and minds and eyes are focused on the Lord, we have absolutely no reason to not always do our best no matter what the circumstances are, no matter what the situation is, big or small....and no matter who it is we are serving. Because those things are secondary to the ONE we are ultimately serving...and that should be Jesus Christ. We can never do more than He did for us, and if our hearts are focused on Him, and we find that not one single person says "thank you" to us, it won't even matter, because we aren't looking for a thank you from them anymore...we are awaiting the day when we will see our Savior face to face and hear HIM say, "well done good and faithful servant".

I don't know about you, but that was some heavy stuff for me tonight.....good stuff. The kind of wonderful truth that leaves me satisfied, full and not needing much else.

We have a great God and King and Savior and Redeemer!!!

Grace and peace on your hearts.