Lord, You’re All I Want
I pray to you, O Lord. I say, “You are my place of refuge. You are all I really want in life.” Psalm 142:5
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Perhaps you once thought, as I did, If I get college and graduate degrees, find a meaningful career, make a lot of money, get the promotion I aim for, get married, have great children, and retire at sixty- five with a hefty savings account, I’ll be happy. Maybe you were happy—for a time. But then you began to ask, Is that all there is? The truth is that only God can meet our hearts’ deepest needs because he designed those hearts for himself.
We live in a world that offers no end of “things” as sources of satisfaction and happiness. But even Solomon, the one who had it all, said that the eye never ceases desiring and the senses are never satisfied, that undertaking great projects, amassing wealth, and enjoying every pleasure will eventually prove meaningless. The things of this world will not satisfy our real longings. Without God we will always come up empty because he designed us for communion with him and he alone can fill our emptiness. Only the soul that has experienced communion and oneness with the Creator will know true fulfillment and be able to say, “You are all I really want in life.”
Prayers:
LORD, open my heart to spiritually perceive the truth that you are all I really need and what my heart really longs for. Let me so experience the joy of your presence that I will not look for satisfaction or pleasure in the things of this world. Let me say with the psalmist, “Lord, you are my place of refuge. You are all I really want in life.”
Quotes:
You called, you cried, you shattered my deafness, you sparkled, you blazed, you drove away my blindness, you shed your fragrance, and I drew in my breath, and I pant for you.
Augustine of Hippo (354–430)
The One Year Bible Readings for today are: Zechariah 4:1–5:11; Revelation 14:1-20; Psalm 142:1-7 and Proverbs 30:21-23.
