What’s your favorite place to dine? What would you consider comfort food? Where do you go to suppress the hunger pangs? I have–and will always have–a strong affinity for Thai food. There’s so much flavor and richness. Maybe it all has something to do with the very fact that I’m Thai. But that’s ink for another story. Food. It’s a peculiar thing, though, right? I mean, we eat but only to be left wanting once again. Such is the human existence. We were created to be filled. Did you get that? We were created to be filled. We can’t produce our own energy source. In some sense, we’re like furnaces, if we operate correctly. Place the"right" kindling and tinder in us then we burn and have energy and give off heat. Place the wrong foods in us, and well, our bodies don’t run so efficiently.
Is it not the same spiritually and emotionally? We look to the world; to the enticements it brings such as wealth, security, titles, esteem, relationships, the list goes on and on. When we truly connect with the truth that we were created to be filled, first and foremost, by our Creator, then and only then will we have real peace, real contentment, real purpose, real love, real happiness, real joy and real identity. Do you see? To be filled by God brings wholeness. To be filled by God brings you into knowing who God is … who you really are, who He wants you to be and what His purposes are for you and this world.
So when the time comes when you look at your watch and that all too familiar grumbling resonates to the point where bystanders think a small animal is around and you realize that you’re hungry–that you need to be filled once again; look at where you go for your fill. If it’s in a relationship that leaves your ultimate happiness contingent upon what that other person can give and do for you, then you’re only being temporarily filled. Consider it nothing more than an appetizer plate. You will hunger again. Did you catch that? You will hunger again. And you’ll return to that person in need. Yet all too many times when that person doesn’t meet all your needs and expectations,the relationship becomes strained and you’re left in aloneness wondering why—why am I still unfulfilled. We come to the well-traversed intersection of Reality Avenue and Ideals Boulevard.
Truth be told, isn’t that what Jesus addressed when He met the woman at the well? She came to that local water well for her parched mouth. So did Jesus. Yet beyond her physical dehydration, she brought with her a heart that had been left dry and wilted for years. He came with water that would never leave her thirsting after faulty relationships and marriages again. You see, she could have gone back to town thirsting for love that she thought could only be met through the acceptance and security in a relationship. But Jesus stepped in. “You’re thirsty alright,” He says, “but you’re going to the wrong source. I and I alone can relieve your thirst and longing within your soul. Come to Me. You were created to be filled …by Me. And once I fill you, you will burn bright, burn for all to see. You will be who I created you to be, a light and a blessing. Receive from Me and share it to all.”
You will find that your relationships become fuller and healthy. You will come to the realization that not only were you created to be filled, but that once you are filled by God,He’s called you to lovingly feed and serve others. You should and can have reasonable and realistic expectations and boundaries in your relationships. Today, Jesus asks you and I, “Where will you dine?”
[Levy likes to eat. He also wants the best seat in the house…next to Jesus.]
