Being Satisfied

What I am going to write about probably doesn’t apply to anyone else, so I will write this to myself and if you want to read it you can. It is about being satisfied with who you are in relationship to the next life. I don’t know if you have thought much about that, but I have lately. I finished reading the book, “Heaven Is Real” before leaving for China and the descriptions given by the little boy, who claimed he spent some time there, indicate a pretty clear transition from this life to the next. It seems that God designs each of us and enables us with a set of gifts and abilities that we can develop, but that design set each receives locks us into who we are forever. God begins with a perfect design for each of us and one day we will be perfect and complete and will fit perfectly into the body of Christ. This leads me to my concern. What if I am not fully satisfied with how I look or with my abilities?

Several days ago I went down to the riverside park for a walk with Father to see the river and to do some thinking when he placed a thought in my mind. What struck me was the direct question, “How do you feel when you are dissatisfied with who you are?” I realized that every time I felt that way I ended up with a heavy spirit and lacked peace. I then realized that if I felt that way it meant that I wasn’t satisfied with God’s design for me and that I was saying to him that I wasn’t pleased with his design. I stopped and thought about why I was not satisfied and the answer was simply, “Pride”! I realized that if I would stop and believe that God knows exactly what he is doing and that if his design was to be perfect and complete then I would have to be perfect and complete according to his design. If I were to live with that design in mind I would have that perfect peace and satisfaction he wants me to enjoy forever. When I begin to become dissatisfied I find it is when my focus begins to shift from enjoying my relationship with God to who I am or what I am or am not accomplishing.

Spending time with my brother and sister in law in Florida before coming to China really helped me with this topic. We had such a good time sitting on the patio overlooking the pond and the golf course at hole 17 and talking.

We don’t do enough of that today because we are all so busy with so many things that are not really important. I really enjoy my walks with Father here in China. We have some great time of conversations. He clearly speaks to me by putting thoughts in my mind. Life is not just what we do, but it is our relationship with God and letting him work through us using the gifts and abilities he created us with.

A great passage to read with this is 1 Cor. 12:12 – 27.