January 29

Today, your heart will search for satisfaction. Will you look for it in the creation or in relationship to the creator?

It was obvious what was happening, but not to him. What he was trying to do would never work. I was his gardener, and I was at the base of his property, near the entrance, when he drove in with yet another new car. I had seen him do this same thing again and again. In fact, he was quickly running out of room. As he hopped out of his expensive new toy, he asked me what I thought. I said, "I don't think its working." He said, "I don't know what you're talking about, it's a brand-new car." I said, "I think what you're trying to do will never work." He said, "I have no idea what you're trying to say to me." I asked, "How many cars is it going to take before you realize that an automobile has no capacity whatsoever to satisfy your heart?" Disappointed, he said, "Boy, you're raining on my parade." I was, and it was a big gospel moment.

The sight-sound-smell-touch-taste created world is amazing and beautiful. There seems to be an endless display of glories for us to discover around each corner. The song of a bird, the smell of a grilling steak, the grandeur of a mountain, the power of the wind, the grace of a deer, the lapping waves of the sea, the beauty of the sunset, and the tenderness of a kiss are all amazing in their own way. But there is one thing you must always remember as you take in creation's multisensory display.  Creation does not have the ability to satisfy your heart. Earth simply will never be your savior. When you ask the created thing to do what it was not designed to do, you get short-term fulfillment, so you have to go back again and again. Because you have to go back again and again, rather than leaving you full and satisfied, the created world leaves you fat, addicted, and in debt.

The glories of the created world are meant to be glorious, but they are not meant to be the thing that you look to for life. No, all the glories of the created world together are meant to be one big finger that points you to the God of glory, who made each one of them and is alone able to give you life. Worshiping the creation is never a pathway to life; it leads you in the opposite direction. Today you will give your life to something. Will it be the Creator, whose grace alone can satisfy and transform your heart, or the creation, which was designed to do neither?
 

For further study and encouragement: Jeremiah 10
 

Devotions from: New Morning Mercies from Paul David Tripp published by Crossway Books