Listening is an act of love.  Few value the necessity of searching God’s Word for the assurance it offers.  All of us flounder, wander, feel lost, tired unwelcome and alone, for these are the incomplete feelings looming in a world that worships in-consequence and conquering the insubstantial.  If, I have no money but I am loved and respected by my friends, family, colleagues and neighbors, what worldly value have I?  If I perceive it but can never achieve it will my employer simply reward my effort?  If children find me false, unauthentic, untrustworthy and self-serving, will they find value in my testimony?  Why do  I serve God, because He directs my path with love, wisdom, forgiveness and and an immeasurably, righteous sacrifice for me at the moment when I had nothing of real value to offer in return.  I seek Him because He promises to shape my character and delivers those necessary changes through continued relationship.  I worship Him out of practicality, because He deserves all the praise I could ever offer and then some.

But what of this world and all that might be achieved?  Think of a person who typifies success, by worldly measure.  Someone you might have a longing to emulate, duplicate or become.  What is the nature of their enviable success?  Are they simply fortunate, having the right set of talents and timing given to those elements of success?  Did they work hard and find reward in the trappings of sweat and sacrifice?  If that were so you could not help to duplicate their success without a similar swath of talent, the luck and chance to be in the right place at the right time or a dedication of your life to overcoming those around you?  Has adulthood taught you the reality of this envy, that you or I will probably never be the next overnight sensation, or do you still hold onto the minimal probability that you will hit the right lottery numbers or be discovered?  Have we seen and understood the emptiness of world domination?  I mean one must simply look upon the life of Alexander the Great to view the folly at the end of the world’s rainbow.  Wouldn’t it be more mature to avoid the scant probability of accessing success through probability or effort by investing your time and thought in certainty?

The only fulfillment you will ever find will be discovered through investigation of your creation?  Do not allow the world to convince you that happiness may only be found in luck and chance or through laser focused effort.  A woman who does exactly what she was designed to do is more infinitely wealthy than any other who has reached every goal and received every reward this world offers.  That is why other religions may not offer the same assurance associated with Christianity, because they rely on my ability to perform or capacity to remain vigilant until enlightenment somehow comes upon me.  These requirements match this world’s game of performance and chance.  God died for me so that I might live forgiven of sins that I could never escape and then He went on into eternity to prepare a place that we might reside together forever.  None of that depends upon me or luck or my talents and treasure.  I don’t have to somehow hope to say the right words, do the right deeds or be in the right place at the right time.  Loving God and reading His Word gives me the only assurance available in this world prone to luck and likelihood.  I worship God because He deserves it.  I follow God and emulate His actions because they are the model for right living in this world and the next.  I don’t have beauty, talent, treasure and I will never strike it rich by chance.  But I have found favor in God and through serving Him with the gifts I was given by His spirit, I have found purpose, resolution and fulfillment.  What then are we seeking if not this type of assurance in a world where it remains elusive?

Praise God for the security, purpose and freedom we find in Jesus.