The Lord is all satisfying

"Thus says the LORD, 'What injustice did your fathers find in Me, that they want far from Me and walked after emptiness and became empty?'"
Jeremiah 2:5

God is the source of all goodness. "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights..." (James 1:17) There is no goodness to be found outside of Him. Outside of the Lord, there is no happiness, no peace, no joy, nothing. Sure non-believers possess these things, but they receive them from the very God they spurn. "... He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." (Matthew 5:45)

But the believer has so much more. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ..." (Ephesians 1:3) We have Christ Himself. We have eternal life. We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God.

In light of that, how absurd is apostasy? That was the question the Lord raised through the prophet Jeremiah. It was not as if Judah was leaving God for something better. God said that they walked after emptiness and became empty. They left "the fountain of living waters" (Jeremiah 2:13) and chased after nothing. The call of the gospel is never to forsake wonderful things in order to slave under a stingy and harsh master. Read the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15. The son knew what he was doing. He forsook starvation and a pig's sty for the fattened calf and his father's love.

So often the temptation comes upon us to forsake Christ and to join the world. I have to admit that it is a powerful temptation. But I have noted that the temptation is at its strongest when I fail to keep the glories of Christ in the forefront of my mind. When I am satisfied with all that God has given to me and done in me and promised to me and how wonderful He is, in those times the temptation is pathetically weak. Always keep this in mind.

For Christ,
Daniel