How To Find Satisfaction In God

by Jack Wellman · Print Print · Email Email

Is there a way to find satisfaction in God? Yes, and here’s how.

Finding God

I love John Piper’s quote that “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” That’s not only one of the greatest sayings I’ve ever heard, by being satisfied in God, it’s one of the chief ways we can find satisfaction in Him, but how does Mr. Piper, and how do we find satisfaction in God? Can we find out how to be most satisfied in God from being in God’s Word? And, can we learn how to be satisfied in God by looking at the example of others? I believe it is “Yes” to both questions. We don’t have to uncover great mysteries or dig for hidden treasures to find out how to be satisfied in God. These are clearly revealed in Scripture, so it doesn’t take a Bible scholar to find out how to be satisfied in God. The surprisingly easy answer is to be staying in the Word of God on a consistent basis. That means no less than reading the Bible once every day. I would strongly suggest you begin your day with prayer and Bible reading. No one can take the Word of God with them unless they put the Word of God in them. The psalmist prayed; “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1). Want to find God? Seek Him in prayer; then seek to know God by knowing His Word. Guess what? To read His Word is to know Him, at least on a limited scale, we can know enough about God to know how to be saved, but also, how to find our satisfaction in Him.

Satisfied in Him

If we understand that God is sovereign over all things, then we must either accept the good and the bad that happens to us, knowing that God’s working all this out for His own purposes (Rom 8:28), or we can be dissatisfied with life and prove that we’re not satisfied in Him. God is very pleased when we praise Him in the storm, giving thanks to Him in the midst of a trial. This is one way we can satisfy God, but the interesting thing is, when you’re busy satisfying God, you find you’ve become satisfied in God. What happens is you find your satisfaction in Him from your satisfying Him. I don’t know how that works; I only know that it does. Certainly, a person that wants to find satisfaction in God must be in God’s Word, because by knowing the Word well enough, they can endure the storm, knowing that God can use evil for good (Gen 50:20). The Father was satisfied in the sacrifice of His Son’s suffering and death, and that was as great an evil as has ever occurred (John 3:16). Remember that ”O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Isaiah 53:10). Why was this satisfying to God? Isaiah writes, “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:11). The wrath of God that was our due was placed upon Christ, and so God was satisfied because Jesus Christ took the wrath of God for us. He bore our sins. I have no problem saying I deserved God’s wrath. Neither should you my friend. We all deserved it, but that’s what makes God’s grace so amazing, so when we understand that we deserved hell and not heaven, we can be deeply satisfied in God because of His great love, mercy, and grace (John 3:16; Eph 2:8-9).

Count Your Blessings

I remember the old hymn, “Count Your Blessings” as it said, “Count them one by one.” I took that as advice once and started to write out on a sheet of paper the many blessings that God has given me. I started with one sheet, but over time, this sheet grew to two sheets, three sheets…and is still growing. You see my point? We can be more satisfied in God when we see more of what He’s done to satisfy us. I’m not saying God promises to make your life happy and everything go well. What I am saying is that things are already going well for most of us. We have been like the stick snatched out of the fire, plucked out from over the pit of hell, and chosen by God, just as He said of Israel, “Is this not a brand plucked from the fire” (Zech 3:2b)? What is greater than your soul? What price could you put on where you will spend eternity? If God has brought you to repentance and faith in Christ, then you should be thanking God every day. There is nothing more valuable to your soul than trusting in Jesus Christ. The most precious blood of the Lamb was the most precious substance in all the universe. With this precious blood of the Lamb, we would never find satisfaction in God because God finds none in us! That’s because “God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day” (Psalm 7:11). The Apostle Peter ties in our life with our salvation and admonishes us; “conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1st Pet 1:17b-19). To find true satisfaction in God, you must find true satisfaction in life, knowing that He knows what He’s doing, even if it doesn’t look like it.

Conclusion

If you find satisfaction in God’s Word, then you’ll find satisfaction in God, because God is not only found in the Word, He is the Word (John 1:1, 14), so to know God’s Word is to know God’s mind, at least a fraction of it anyway, because none of us can ever comprehend The Infinite God, but if you want to know the mind of God, you must be reading the Word of God. God speaks directly to you and to me in His Word. When we’re satisfying Him in our lives, then we’ll be satisfied in Him. When we see such a great salvation as ours, we will be moved to be deeply satisfied in Him. There is no ambiguity or mystery to discovering how to find satisfaction in God. It is something that is knowable, just as it is readable.

Take a look at this related article: How To Live a Life of Contentment

Resource – Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.



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