Substitute Satisfactions

A. 1 Sam. 12:21, “And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which
cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing.” Our true need in life is God. And no counterfeit
fulfillment can never take the place of God, our true need. Even so, Satan’s deception has
always been that our deepest needs can be filled outside of the limits of God's will. Satan defrauds us of the joy we were designed for by suggesting that our greater needs can be filled by lesser satisfactions. That even our need for God Himself can be gratified by other pleasures. This ancient lie is the source of all idolatry and spiritual treachery.
The deepest longings God has given us are longings that must be fulfilled. That is the way God made us. Those longings cannot, and will not, be denied. If we're not richly nourished by the Bread of Life, we'll be driven to pick up whatever crumbs we can from the world. But filling our hunger with other food doesn't mean that our need for God is any less. It just means we'll be less likely to feel that need.
a. However inferior worldly substitutes may be. Satan can deceive us and make us think our
needs are being met. Just as candy spoils the appetite of a child for real nourishment,
we spoil our appetite for God and foolishly suppose that we are no longer hungry.
But we are shaped and fashioned by what we love. Eventually, we come to bear the likeness of our chosen desires. Therefore, a most serious danger of substitutes is that our fascination with their fulfillment may come to be a part of our character. If we put other things in the place of devotion that ought to be occupied by God alone, the time will come when we share the likeness of those things more than we share the likeness of God. This is altogether frightening, sobering.
Ultimately, substitute satisfactions don't work. If we fill God?created needs with anything less than God?designed fulfillment, the result is bound to be unsatisfying in the short run, and destructive to our character in the long run. Even when we get what we want, it won’t be what we want.
It’s as Solomon said in Eccl. 5:10, "He who loves silver will not be satisfied with
silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity." Temporal
solutions only appear to fix eternal problems. Created things can never do for us what our Creator Himself desires to do. Yes, you can make God a substitute for everything; but nothing can be taken as a substitute for God.
2. Acts 20:32.

Spur - 05/00/03 pm