What Satisfies YOUR Soul?

“Can you find rest apart from the ark, Christ Jesus? Then consider that your religion may be in vain. Are you satisfied with anything short of a conscious knowledge of your union and interest in Christ? Then woe to you.” – C.H. Spurgeon

Aside from my wife and family, some of my favorite things in the world are, in no particular order…

Spaghetti
Traveling
Playing golf (and watching it, too)
Reading (mostly biographies or historical nonfiction)
Antiquing
Fishing
Meatloaf
Crab cakes
Playing basketball (and softball/wiffleball)
Preaching
Following politics (and commenting on current events)
Ice cream, banana pudding, and key lime pie

I could go on and on, but you get the idea.

Of course, all those things pale in comparison to my love for Deanna, our three kids, our three in-law children, and our six precious grandkids. All of them have a very special place in my heart and bring me immense and indescribable joy.

But none of the people or things I mentioned above are capable of completely satisfying my soul. Only God can do that because that is the way he created me… and you, too. You see, we are each born with a void that only God can fill through a personal relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ.

Here is how Charles Spurgeon, the “Prince of Preachers,” put it so eloquently and yet, so directly…

“If you profess to be a Christian while finding full satisfaction in worldly pleasures and pursuits, your profession is probably false. If your soul can stretch herself at rest and find the bed long enough and the blanket broad enough to cover it in the chambers of sin, then you are a hypocrite and far away from any proper thoughts of Christ or awareness of His preciousness.”

“But if, on the other hand, you feel that if you could indulge in sin without punishment, that would be a punishment itself, and that if you could have the whole world and live in it forever, it would be quite enough misery not to be separated from it, for your God—your God—is what your soul longs for, then be of good courage, you are a child of God. With all your sins and imperfections, take this for your comfort: If your soul has no rest in sin, you are not as the sinner is! If you are still crying after and craving after something better, Christ has not forgotten you, for you have not quite forgotten Him.”

“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs after You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God.” Psalm 42:1b-2a (BSB)

- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President