Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Patience”
Our Bible verse for today: “Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the waters; and you without money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost! Why do you spend money on what is not food, and your wages on what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and you will enjoy the choicest of foods.” Isaiah 55:1-2 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “Spend the time to seek that which really matters.”
Albert Einstein once wrote, “The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” Another way of putting that would be, “If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you will keep getting what you’ve always gotten.” In other words, if this thing you’ve been doing hasn’t produced the desired results for you the first one hundred (or one thousand) times you did it, and you haven’t changed anything, is it really rational to expect it to produce a different result this time?
There’s a spiritual application here. Isaiah wrote about it in Isaiah 55:1-2. God’s people were spending extraordinary amounts of time and energy pursuing worldly pleasures and earthly riches, only to discover that in the end, those things didn’t really fully satisfy. When it was all said and done the itch was still there, the emptiness wasn’t really filled, the need wasn’t really met. And how do people typically respond to that? With more of the same. We try harder, we work longer, we acquire more. And what’s the result? The same as it’s always been. The itch is still there, the emptiness wasn’t really filled, the need wasn’t really met. And so we take a deep breath and then we go at it again.
We’re like hamsters on a treadmill. Lots of activity, lots of energy expended, but not really getting anywhere. The problem is that the real itch, emptiness, need, isn’t physical (although we think it is), it’s spiritual. What we really need is not more money, or a bigger house, or a newer car. What we need is more of God. Our real need is spiritual at it’s core, and only God Himself can meet that need for us. God’s answer to our frantic and futile efforts at fulfillment is to simply come to Him.
But, we’re impatient. We’re impatient when it comes to the spiritual disciplines of prayer and Bible study and worship. We are so focused and so busy pursuing the worldly pleasures and earthly treasures that if we make time for prayer and Bible study at all, it’s short and it’s rushed. Isn’t that silly? The thing we need the most, the thing that would provide us the most peace and joy and fulfillment, is the thing we give the least time and effort to. And the things that have proven over and over again to not really meet the need or provide the fulfillment we seek, are the things we continue to run after with an almost hypnotic intensity.
Before you go to your time of prayer this morning, take just a minute to read Psalm 46:10 (Be still, and know that I am God), and Mathew 11:28-30 / John 7:37-38 (Come to Me). Then ask God to help you have the patience to focus on what really matters and what will really make a difference.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 