My wonderful wife was reciting to me the other day some of the verses she has memorized from the Scriptures, and I cannot fully express how much it has meant to me to watch her as she continues to not only commit these words of God to her mind, but also how she is hiding them in her heart so that she will not sin against the Lord. (Psalm 119:11) But as she and all of Gods children are aware, memorizing the Word of God does something special to us, it changes us, it shows us the truth of God and His incredible love for us, it draws us closer to Him.
This statement, to draw closer to the Lord, gave my mind something to ponder, why would we want to be closer to Him than we already are, after all, if you have been born again you have the Holy Spirit dwelling within you, you can’t get much closer than that, my friends. He lives within you to guide you, to enable you to live beyond the transitory, to assist you in your walk in the present and to continually remind you of eternal.
If we look at 2nd Peter 3:18 we are commanded, not requested, to “grow in grace, and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Knowledge can be imparted in many ways when referring to the spiritual, studying and searching the Scriptures daily is perhaps the most important, along with prayer, for when we pray to the Lord for knowledge and wisdom, the answer is almost the same, “Look in the Book that I have written for you.” All the knowledge and ‘wisdom’ of the world will not avail you one bit in your desire to draw closer to the Lord, at its best it can only show you the opposite of who God is, and to a small degree two statements are relative to that concept. The first would be that if you want to know the totality of a thing, you must understand the inverse of that thing, and the second of course, would be the knowledge of our adversary, for without the knowledge of your enemy, you cannot defeat him. The world and its ideologies are the inverse, the opposite of Gods desires for us, and Satan, though not the opposite of our Lord, for God has no opposite, is also a servant of the Most High, and it is through the knowledge of Scripture that we not only learn of him and his actions, but how to stand against him in the Spirit.
If you truly desire to draw closer to the Lord though, you must understand why you would want to in the first place, what is the reason that you want to be in the front row, as it were, instead of way in the back of the auditorium.
There are two words I would ask you to consider here, and how they can be applied to the topic of the conversation, satisfied and content, and if you will bear with me, we will see how these two words are relative to each other only without the proper context, for they are more than just expressions when administered in context here, they can reveal our souls desire in this area, the truth of who we are. While we have discussed briefly the knowledge aspect of this topic, we have yet to examine the greater part of 2nd Peter 3:18, growing in the grace of our Lord, how does one grow in unmerited favor? In my short walk with the Lord on this earth, I have met many more Christians that are content than are satisfied, they seem to have found a rest stop, as it were, along the path that the Lord has placed them on and have decided to build a house there, content with the “small grace” that the Lord has blessed them with, desiring no more knowledge of His will and word, content to stop growing as a believer, much less in His grace.
If you think in the analogy of the auditorium that I mentioned earlier, you will find these individuals in the back rows, and I do not believe it is because they love Him less, but I contend that at least for many of them there is a threefold reason why they desire to remain back there. The first would be fear, not so much in the form of dread and terror of our Lord, but the knowledge that if you are in the front row you will be more easily noticed, and if you are noticed, you may be called upon, a fear of being used, a fear of “having to be a missionary to a far off land,” if you will. The second would be, for some unknown reason, that is where nearly all the rest of the believers are, in the back row. They have congregated there with the understanding that in numbers there is anonymity, and in this group there is less of a chance, greater odds if you will, that someone else besides you will be chosen, will be singled out for service or action beyond what you would choose on your own to do.
The third would be one of our topic words, they are simply content where they are, they have plopped themselves down in the same pew in the same spot that they sit in week after week, year after year, have little to no desire to move from that spot, and their spiritual life has come to the same location as their place in the church, the Body of Christ, faithful, dependable, but only so far and no further. These have become content with the milk of the Word, they desire no more than to be a doorman, (Psalm 84:10) and to search any further into the grace of the Lord, to draw nigh unto Him any closer, (James 4:8) has not been a conscience effort of theirs for many years. They do not have on all of their armor, (Eph. 6:11) and though they are loved by our Lord, they of their own free will have said, “This far, no further.” I am sorry to say, but it may all be a matter of trust on their part, in this area I cannot and will not judge.
On the other context of this topic, we must now decide if it is appropriate to place the word ‘never’ in front of what we are using for the opposite of content, the word ‘satisfied’, for if we say ‘never satisfied,’ then the connotation can go in two different directions, and though this can be used in the form of needs and wants, please recall that it is in the grace and knowledge of the Lord that we want to stay in context.
Quickly though, allow me to remind us that ‘never satisfied’ is the way of the world in needs and wants, every commercial informs us of what we need, every advertisement lets us know that what we want is available to us, as long as you can afford it, and if you can’t, hard work for the transitory will reward your efforts with the desires of your heart in the transitory, and if you do not achieve them, well at least you tried. Fail or succeed, these are the only options the world has to offer. But this is not how it is for those who desire to seek the grace and knowledge of the Lord, those who diligently and continually seek will find great reward.
As the world is, in an odd way, our search for these two things in Christ is satisfied only for a moment, for when we see how wonderful He is, in the next moment He show us just how much more marvelous He truly is, and the beautiful cycle continues. Here is where the dividing line of content and satisfied comes into perspective, here is where we find those who stop and say “Enough,” and those who cry aloud “More, show me more of yourself!” As Moses did when God hid him in the cleft of the rock as He passed by, (Exo. 33:22) we should be. There is great reverential fear and awe in the presence of the Lord, but there is also an incredible peace and security there, and a love beyond anything we will ever be able to comprehend fully.
There are those who are content to stay at the foot of the cross, even though He is no longer there, others are content at the empty tomb, but those who are never satisfied follow Him wherever He leads, for He is going there first, and He can be completely trusted. The satisfaction is only for a moment, and then is left behind as treasure laid up in heaven, and as they continue to “press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ,” (Phil 3:14) they find that the love, grace and knowledge of Him has no end, will truly never be found in its entirety, and Christ becomes the only goal worth the task of our lives, the only goal worthy of our lives.
Never be content in this context my friends, never stop striving for the grace and knowledge of God, head towards the front of the auditorium with purposeful intent, and great humility. Let the heartfelt, deepest intent of your very soul be known to God, and let that desire be Christ. Those who are content have stopped seeking and growing, those who are never satisfied, are always satisfied.
