canstockphoto6204399Today, the Diller home had a bit of a celebration. Madylynn’s platelet count maintained its high level. So after our trip to Children’s Hospital (and a healthy dinner) we took the family out to Bloomville for ice cream.

On the way home, as we ate our ice cream cones, I thought about how sad I used to get as a kid when I reached the bottom of the ice cream cone.  I would always want another one.  One, two, or more, simply wasn’t enough to satisfy.  If allowed, I’d eat ice cream till I was sick to my stomach.

Truth be told, not much has changed since then!

But even as good as Bloomville ice cream is, at the bottom, I’ll never find any lasting satisfaction – that peace that our hearts so crave.   The same can be said of so many vices in life.  At the end of every bottle of alcohol or dollar spent, both are trying to meet a need that is incredibly deep. But neither has the power to satisfy, but rather only increase the need for more in hopes of filling the void. Neither satisfies the deep hunger, the God shaped hole that’s in every human being.

It’s easy, as Christians, to look at someone else and want to pick the dust out of their eye while we have a plank in ours. So I invite you to take a sober look at yourself. We are just as susceptible. We can be tempted to allow an idol (money, sex, food, career, success, hobbies, etc) take God’s rightful place in the throne of our hearts. Idols aren’t limited to golden cows or statues that we read about in Scripture. An idol is in fact anything that usurps God from our hearts. He must be first.

Exodus 20:3 You shall have no other gods before Me.

The hunger, the thirst, that needs richly fed cannot be satisfied through things of this world that are bound to fail. When we discover that all we need is in Christ do we truly see the things of this world become dim in the light of His glory and grace.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace.

Even with all the success in our world, people still die never fully realizing what true abundant life is. Jesus said in John 10:10 that He came that we may have life abundant. That’s not abundant in things, but in joy and in peace, knowing we are clean before a holy and righteous God. That, my friends, is abundant living!

Our ice cream trip was wonderful! And for those that know about the size of ice cream cones in Bloomville Ohio, I only ordered a small cone this time. But even if I ordered a large (and I’d hate to see a large) I’d still reach the bottom of the cone.

Christians! You will never reach the bottom of His boundless riches!