Created to Crave: Part 16

A Glorious Day!

We live in a noisy and busy world which makes it very difficult for us to pause and truly examine our lives.  When we do what we discover is that our hearts crave.  While our physical bodies crave things like food, air, water, and sleep, our spirits crave things like intimacy, significance, and truth.  We get glimpses of satisfaction in this life, but our souls are never really satisfied.

C. S. Lewis wrote; "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world" (Mere Christianity, p. 121).  The logical explanation for the cravings of our souls is that we were made for another world, a world where God reigns, a place where intimacy thrives, significance is discovered, and meaning is supplied.  Once sin entered this world it was robbed of its potential to satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts.

When we encounter Jesus our hearts get a taste of satisfaction they so desperately crave.  This taste gives us hope that one day we will experience the complete satisfaction we have been longing to have.  The hope of Christianity is that when Jesus returns and sets this world right then we will experience life the way it is meant to be lived, and the desires of our hearts will be met.  What a glorious day that will be!

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Created to Crave: Part 8

A Common Experience

You and I long to be known.  It is a real and constant craving of our hearts.  We have had moments of contentment when we have been able to enjoy the companionship of great friends and the wonderful presence of family.  Yet these moments are sooner or later marred by the reality of sin in the world.  True intimate relationships are hard to maintain when sin rears its ugly head.

We see this reality in one of the most talked about people in the Bible. Even though she is often talked about we do not know her name.  We know her as the woman at the well. As we go through the text try and imagine, based on your life experience, what life was like for this woman before she met Jesus.

Jesus knew the Pharisees had heard that he was baptizing and making more disciples than John (though Jesus himself didn't baptize them—his disciples did). So he left Judea and returned to Galilee. 

He had to go through Samaria on the way. Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Please give me a drink." He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food (John 4:1-8; NLT).

Here we notice that the woman was an outsider.  She came to the well to draw water when she hoped no one else would be there.  This poor woman had had her fill of disapproving looks, the constant whispers, and being disrespected.  In short she was tired of being the outsider.  She decided that it was easier to avoid people than to deal with all the drama, and so she came to the well when her chance of running into other people was greatly reduced.

Created to Crave: Part 6

Made for a Different World


The Christian writer and thinker C. S. Lewis wrote: "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." (Mere Christianity, p. 121).  That is what this blog series is about.  I want us to look at the desires we have in our lives and begin to develop a new longing: God's New Creation. The deepest longings of our souls and the cravings of our hearts point to the reality that we were designed for something more.  We weren’t met for this world, so we shouldn't expect for our desires to be satisfied here.

The follower of Jesus Christ discovers that satisfaction can only be realized in Christ Jesus.  Jesus said:

"Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father." (John 15:5-8; NLT)

One of the truths we get from this is that source of our lives is Jesus.  We cannot hope to have life and to be satisfied apart from him.  We must intentionally stay connected to Jesus through prayer, study, and obedience, and as we do we will grow more content and discover the satisfaction we long to have in life.  This will be only a foretaste of what life will be when the old earth passes away and we find ourselves living in the New Creation God has promised.

Instead of endlessly trying to find satisfaction here on earth we begin to hope for heaven.  As we begin to hope for heaven we begin to enjoy the things of this life a little better because we no longer expect them to satisfy our souls, we don’t expect them to do something they weren’t designed to do.

Here is what I want you to remember: We find ultimate satisfaction in Jesus.  Following Jesus will make our lives better, but we will also realize that He is leading us into a brand new world.  It is in that place our desires will finally be met.

Created to Crave: Part 5

Hoping for Satisfaction

When it comes to our cravings we can seek satisfaction through indulgence.  It seems to make sense that if we give into our cravings that those cravings will be satisfied.  The problem is that the response of indulgence often leads to increased cravings.  Rather than decreasing our cravings we actually discover that we are craving more and more.  Satisfaction is not found in indulgence.

Since we cannot find satisfaction in indulgence we will turn to a life of self-control.  Self-control isn't designed to bring satisfaction, rather it is designed to reign in our cravings so they don't dominate our lives.  So once again we are left unsatisfied.

A third response to our soul cravings is faith.  Faith allows us to live our lives believing that one day all our deepest desires will be met.  A life of faith enables us to live with the hope that we will have satisfaction. 

Jesus had just finished feeding 5,000 people with a few loaves of bread and a few fish.  It was a miraculous meal.  The people wanted to make Him King, after all a man that can heal the sick and feed the hungry, could lead an unbeatable army.  Israel could be free from Roman control! Listen to what happened:

The next day the crowd that had stayed on the far shore saw that the disciples had taken the only boat, and they realized Jesus had not gone with them. Several boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the Lord had blessed the bread and the people had eaten. So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went across to Capernaum to look for him. They found him on the other side of the lake and asked, "Rabbi, when did you get here?"  

Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. But don't be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.  

They replied, "We want to perform God's works, too. What should we do?"  

Jesus told them, "This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent."  

They answered, "Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you. What can you do? After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! The Scriptures say, 'Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat.'"  

Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, Moses didn't give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."  

"Sir," they said, "give us that bread every day."  

Jesus replied, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But you haven't believed in me even though you have seen me. However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. For it is my Father's will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day." (John 6:22-40; NLT)

Jesus said don’t worry about the things of this world, but think about things that can’t perish.  He claims that  in Him our longings, our hunger and thirst, will be satisfied.  Get this, our longings cannot be truly satisfied as long as we live here in this world.  We will find temporary satisfaction, but the longings will continue to come back.

What Jesus told the crowd, what he wants us to know, is that only when God's Kingdom arrives in power will we experience the lasting satisfaction that we want to have. We will be known like we want to be known.  We will have value, not because of what we have done, but because God has declared us valuable.  We will understand truth and the meaning of life and realize that what we need is found in God alone.  I believe that following Jesus will give us the best life we can live right now, but the best part of following Jesus is that it gives us hope that one day all the cravings of our souls will be satisfied.