Satisfied By Love...Day 19

Joining the rest of the snow-covered world today as the white flakes settle on red berries outside our bedroom window.  I know the winter gets long here but there is something so peaceful about early snowfall...traffic slows and the air gets quiet and I can sit here and ponder...

Numbers chapter 11 was on the schedule for today and this is what I saw:

11: 4-6 "Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving.  And the people of Israel also wept again and said, "Oh that we had meat to eat!  We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.  But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at."

There was rabble in the crowd of Israel.  People were dissatisfied and wishing they were in Egypt.  Egypt! A place of slavery!  God had delivered them and was providing food for them and they were complaining.  It wasn't what they wanted.

I've been there.  In a place where nothing around me feels good enough.  When what I desire draws my mind from being thankful for what I have.  And then those cravings set in and I find myself trying to fill it.  Food is my biggest struggle.  But for someone else it could be clothes with more style than sweats, a car without rust, a home with a yard, a better paying job, a TV people can see from two blocks away...

And even if we have all of this it isn't enough.  It is never enough when we fill our craving with something other than God.  Satisfaction comes through thankful hearts and recognizing that what he gives is always good.  And what he doesn't give is good too.

God provided what they wanted.  He sent them quail from all over the place!  Along with a plague...

11: 33-34   "While the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord struck down the people with a very great plague.  Therefore the name of that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had the craving."

We are asked to die a different death.  We are asked to die to ourselves.  When the rabble comes and tempts us to see what we don't have and seek what we crave we can choose to look until we find it or we can choose to see what is already there and give thanks.  I don't want my life to be spent chasing after things that don't satisfy and don't add life to the lives of others.

Jesus had a desire for people to be reconciled to his father and to know the joy of relationship with him.  His desire led to death.  A death that would bring life for centuries.  Every time we die to ourselves and lay our cravings at his feet, we receive life and can pour it into others.

Lord, help me to live this way-satisfied by your love and giving thanks for all your gifts...