The Secret of Fulfillment!

Pleasing God, must be the  priority in our lives. Only that, will birth the New Life of Christ in us and make us feel loved.

Pleasing ourselves and others to gain fulfillment, can become idolatry. God longs to satisfy us beyond our dreams, but before that He must be placed first in our hearts.

A wonderful example is Leah, Jacob's first wife. She was unloved by Jacob. Leah thought that if she pleased him, he will love her more, but Jacob continued to ignore her and love Rachel instead. Jacob did not love Leah. God saw that she was unloved and He gave her a son.

God's nature is to be drawn towards those who are unloved and who are hurting within.

Man's nature is the opposite. Man will move away the more you pursue him to try to win his love, and this is what happened with Leah and Jacob.

Leah was seeking fulfillment by trying to attain Jacob's love, and now her problem was becoming worse. For not only was she not attractive to Jacob, but her jealous acts seemed to be building up on her unloveliness. Thus she now became even more unattractive to him.

We can learn a great lesson from Leah's life. The more we try to win someone's  love and affection,  the more they will move away from us. Trying to do anything in our flesh will reap unfruitfulness. We need to do everything in God's strength. But even before that we need to be filled by God's presence.

Leah continued in her efforts to please Jacob but her efforts were futile. When Leah conceived the fourth time, she slowly became aware that although she was not loved by her husband, God loved her and she realised that God's love is the only thing that matters. Therefore she began to grow closer to God and began praising and worshipping Him and proclaimed, " I will praise the Lord" Genesis Chp 29 vs 35.  She named her fourth son Judah, which meant 'Praise'. It was from the tribe of 'Praise' that is, the tribe of Judah that Christ was born.

While Leah was busy seeking self fulfillment by pleasing her husband with her own efforts, God could not fill her with His fulfillment because she did not open herself up to be filled by God. God is a Gentleman. He will never violate our will. He waits patiently for us to open up to Him.

When Leah realised that all she needed was God, she began to praise and worship Him. It was then that God was able to remove her insecurities, fear, anxiety, jealousies and heartaches. God filled her to the brim and gave her complete fulfillment. She no longer needed the security of Jacob's love. God's love was sufficient for her.

Now let us look at the other perspective. 'Making others happy'. Brothers and sisters, no matter what we do or try to make our husbands or wives or children or bosses or colleagues or friends, happy by our own efforts, we will surely fail because we are not seeking God first. Only God can make one happy and fulfilled.

Let us look at the following analogies:-

1) A torch has an expensive bulb fitted in it. But only when it is charged it can shine on the beautiful scenery around it to make all the people around enjoy the scenic beauty and be happy. But if the torch is not charged, no matter how expensive the bulb is, no matter how extraordinary its finish is, it cannot shine and all those around will surely be unhappy in the engulfing darkness.

In the same way we need to be filled, charged by God first so that those around us can experience God's love through us and be happy.

2) Imagine a durian rolling over to people and trying to hug them! Won't the people run away in fear because of its thorny exterior? But when the vendor who sells it cuts it open, the sweet aroma of its yellow juicy flesh fills the air and people are drawn towards it.

In the same way we need the power of the Holy Spirit to remove our thorny exterior, to remove our addictions, our self seeking characteristics, our fleshly desires, our uncultured habits and our egoistic attitudes and bring out the beauty from within us so that others may see God's beauty of character in us and be pleased and happy with us and in our presence.

These days husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends are seeking to please each other by putting them on the pedestal instead of our Creator God and they are failing miserably in their efforts. Thus the reason for the rise in divorces.

Blessed is the person who knows the secret of happiness, and the secret is in seeking after God's heart, pleasing Him and resting in Him.

We need to soak in God's holy presence, read His Word and meditate on His Words daily without fail. Only then will we be changed and filled with the Holy Spirit in all His fullness. Only when we seek God will we be fully satisfied and know that we are truly loved by God in our filthy state. That will draw us to repent and seek pardon from Him and draw us closer to Him. Then our character will change from the inside out and God's presence in us will bring about a positive change in us first and in our loved ones next and bring us closer to one another in genuine unconditional love. We will then be bonded in love with Christ. Anything apart from Christ's love is not genuine.

God is waiting for us to surrender fully to Him. He is patiently waiting to fill us with His Spirit, to refresh us with a fresh anointing. What are we waiting for?

     Mary Augustine
Tuesday 9th June 2015