Easter — Wednesday
TODAY’S VERSE
Psalm 16:11
You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (ESV)
When I was a kid, any time we would go on a trip to visit grandparents, or to summer camp, or on a family vacation, I felt like the worst part of the whole experience was having to come home. I’d stall and dawdle around on the day we were supposed to be leaving. I’d try to come up with reasons why we really needed to stay one more day, or side quests that would delay us from getting back home (even claiming that I “HAD to go potty” every time we would drive by a gas station just so that we would stop and I could obstruct the journey home by a liiiiiiittle bit longer). It was silly, really, because every time we did get home, I was happy to be there. In my own sweet bed. With the family I knew loved me. In a place that I knew I belonged.
Maybe in your journey towards home, you’ve felt something similar. Specifically, maybe you have had doubts that what God has for you is not really as good as what you’d have for yourself. Maybe you dawdle around and stall being fully surrendered to the path home, because you have looked to lesser things to belong to, only to come up short. It’s silly, really. Like trying to live in a gas station when a real home is ours for the taking.
Our teaching team at Southland has a running joke that anytime Nickell uses a C.S. Lewis quote in a sermon, he owes us each a dollar (and at this rate, I’m going to be able to buy a house before Christmas). Lucky for me, here’s the quote he used this week: “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
In our foolishness of thinking that our detours and distractions will give us satisfaction, we miss out on the wisdom and wonder of Psalm 16:11, that what God has for us is not madness or misery, but fullness of joy. Pleasures forevermore. This is where the path of life leads us, to a home with God that is infinitely better than our silly little sideroads. Stay the course, friends. Home is yours for the taking with the One who has nothing but eternal goodness planned for you.
APPLICATION
Commit Psalm 16:11 to memory. It’s 24 words of really good news. You can do that!
PRAYER
Father, satisfy me in your love. Turn my heart away from the things that give momentary joy, and give me the fullness of your joy instead. Help me to want you more than I want anything else. Help me to be truly, deeply, fully at home in your presence.
