Obtaining What You Want
30/11/08 20:22
As I was
seeking God, concerning the sermon for this week, and
thinking about this week’s Pastor’s Desk,
I chuckled at God’s timing – His perfect
timing. It is sort of like when you’re going
through something and God just ministers His Word to
you through the sermon or your Bible time. Do you
know what I mean? Well, what better way to realize
that those things that I thought I wanted
wasn’t really what I wanted, than the few
minutes right after I ate all that was on my
Thanksgiving plate! “O, that looks good.”
And “That smells delicious.” My eyes were
bigger than my belly this year and I paid the price.
I hate sitting there so uncomfortable because of my
own undoing! I shot myself in the foot with ham, yams
and potato salad and now I know why they call them
devil-eggs. So many times throughout my life I
obtained things that I thought I wanted only to
realize that after I obtained them it wasn’t
what I really wanted. Or else, what I thought would
be good for me actually turned out to be more of a
burden, or a bad habit that I later wanted to shake
off but couldn’t. For instance, pornography; as
a young man I thought that that sort of thing was
just what I needed, only to find out later that it
wasn’t. Getting drunk, getting high and having
illicit sex were all things that I thought I wanted,
only to find out years later and several problems
besides, that those things were actually killing me.
Even something as innocent as coffee; “Ah, just
a good cup of hot steaming joe.” Anyone who has
ever drank coffee for a number of years will tell you
that it’s not so easy to quit drinking it.
While the Apostle Paul was being transported to Rome, because of his arrest by the Jews, they were on a ship that was looking for a pleasant south wind to travel by. Listen to Luke describe it: “When a gentle south wind began to blow, they thought they had obtained what they wanted; so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete…” Not too long afterwards though, a wind of hurricane force swept down from the island and the ship was caught in a terrible storm. They had to give way to it and just be driven along by the winds. Isn’t that just like us when we get ourselves into fine messes because we obtained something that we thought we wanted? Only to find out later that we don’t possess the thing – the thing possesses us! The crazy thing about this whole ordeal with the ship is that these experienced seamen knew that it was already dangerous to set out because of the time of year. What were they thinking? They were even warned by Paul not to set sail and yet they continued in their way to “obtain what they thought they wanted”. For years I have spoken to countless people whose lives are trapped by the same things mine was and I try so hard to warn them that what they think they want – they really don’t. The pleasures of this world are nothing! They are nothing! Jesus said, “What does it profit a man if he gained the whole world and yet, in the end lose his soul. Ask yourself if those things that you have obtained in your life thus far, are they what you really want?
While the Apostle Paul was being transported to Rome, because of his arrest by the Jews, they were on a ship that was looking for a pleasant south wind to travel by. Listen to Luke describe it: “When a gentle south wind began to blow, they thought they had obtained what they wanted; so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete…” Not too long afterwards though, a wind of hurricane force swept down from the island and the ship was caught in a terrible storm. They had to give way to it and just be driven along by the winds. Isn’t that just like us when we get ourselves into fine messes because we obtained something that we thought we wanted? Only to find out later that we don’t possess the thing – the thing possesses us! The crazy thing about this whole ordeal with the ship is that these experienced seamen knew that it was already dangerous to set out because of the time of year. What were they thinking? They were even warned by Paul not to set sail and yet they continued in their way to “obtain what they thought they wanted”. For years I have spoken to countless people whose lives are trapped by the same things mine was and I try so hard to warn them that what they think they want – they really don’t. The pleasures of this world are nothing! They are nothing! Jesus said, “What does it profit a man if he gained the whole world and yet, in the end lose his soul. Ask yourself if those things that you have obtained in your life thus far, are they what you really want?
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