The Sufficiency Of Christ: The Emptiness And Vanity Of All Else To Satisfy The Soul

On what or on whom do we rely upon to satisfy our needy souls?  Is it Jesus or is it self, others, places or things?  Nothing but Jesus will totally and sufficiently satisfy our sin sick souls.  All else comes up wanting often leaving us profoundly dissatisfied with life with no abiding satisfaction.  It is no wonder that the vast majority of forty year olds are on meds to keep their anxiety at bay.  If we simply stop and observe a two year old we can easily learn this lesson.  They want this “whatever” so badly, begging and wailing for it yet once received, they go immediately to wanting something else.  Why?  Because it will not fully satisfy them.  They may be happy for the day or perhaps even a week or a month but eventually the luster lacks and it is on to something else.  If we are honest with ourselves, we can most assuredly see the pattern.
Self and Satan seek to delude us with a mindset or spirit of self-reliance.  It is a mind set on the things of the flesh rather than the things of the Spirit.  It is a mind that repudiates Christ’s legitimate right to rule our lives.  Even Christians can be carnal or fleshly by refusing Jesus’ right to rule their minds, emotions and wills.  And this will always be to their own harm – not their good.  Also, Satan seeks to convince professing believers to seek to live the Christian life apart from the power and leading of the Holy Spirit.  They do not grasp that we cannot do anything eternal apart from Him.  All else that is done in the flesh and will not make it through the fire that will test the quality of each man’s work.  Further, these works bring no lasting satisfaction to a soul that is meant for the Lord Jesus solely.
It is Christ alone that fully satisfies, everything else is simply an added extra.  Nice, but certainly not necessary.  He is to be the Source of our greatest joy.  Those filled with Him are no longer needy as the Living Water fills every available nook and cranny of our beings enabling us to walk in the abundant life filled with much joy and peace.  He is the Giver of every good and perfect gift filling all our longings.  He is “the health of our countenance” as D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes.  We will never know the sufficiency of Christ apart from learning the emptiness and futility of all else.  There is no rising until there has been a fall, Amen?  Look up.