The Unsatisfied Soul: An Accident Waiting to Happen

Excerpt from: A Woman & Her God (by Beth Moore)

An unsatisfied soul is an accident waiting to happen. Consider the saying, ‘Nature abhors a vacuum.’ Human nature also abhors a vacuum. It other words, we avoid feeling empty and always find ways to fill it. God created that void so we would seek Him. We are not satisfied by simply accepting salvation and then ascending to heaven when the time comes. Instead, God wants us to have relationship with Him during our lifetime. When we don’t, we set ourselves up for disaster. If we don’t find satisfaction with God, we will look for it somewhere else. We will default to one of two things: Subsistence living or substitute living.

Consider the word subsistence. One definition of the helpless is that they are poor & needy, ‘subsisting on the alms of others.’ The picture painted here is a beggar.”

We were created as needy people. We need to be loved. We need to be affirmed. We need to know we are valued & significant. These are not weaknesses. This is how we are wired. Yet it becomes a weakness when we look to people or things to fill what only Christ was made to fill. As Beth Moore illustrates, we are like people walking around all day long with an empty cup asking people to fill it up. We may go to our spouse, children, friends, and coworkers asking, “Can you fill my cup?”

“The problem is that we go to them seeking what only Christ was meant to provide. We can affirm one another, even fulfill one another, but it was God’s design right from the beginning that He alone would satisfy our soul’s desire. We were meant to thrive on the riches of His love. We were never meant for subsistence living.”

Substitute living is seen in when we fall into idolatry. We may not have a physical image that we bow to, but idolatry is when we worship or bow down to anything besides God. A person can become an idol to us. Our career can become an idol. The very gifts that God has given us- children, hobbies, careers, finances, friendships, a spouse- can become our hope, security and/or identity. And when this happens we are setting ourselves up for failure. The very thing or person we have placed so high & exalted as our hope will eventually let us down. Christ is the only one worthy of our worship & hope.

Satisfy my soul’s deepest longings Lord. Fill me today with you. Where I am seeking a friend, spouse, child, career, to fill my cup- Reveal that to me. Let me not confuse the gift with the Giver. You are the giver of life, the One who satisfies our soul. And today I choose you God to fill my cup to overflowing.