Awe of God: The Key to True Fulfillment and Lasting Satisfaction
Have you ever had a craving for junk food? Maybe you occasionally crave brownies or pickles like I do. Maybe you give in to your cravings, or maybe you don’t.
Either way, these cravings only fulfill our longings and satisfy our desires for a little while. Sooner or later, we’ll wind up hungry again, either for the same food item, or even for something different.
Just like with junk food, in life we seek to find our fulfillment in things that were never meant to satisfy us. I’ve seen it happen over and over in my own life, and in the lives of my friends.
For example, friendships are a very good gift from God. But when we look to our friends to fulfill our needs to be heard, valued, and loved, we will be let down every time, because God didn’t create our friends to satisfy the desires that only Jesus is meant to fill.
Everyone looks to other things to seek fulfillment from time to time. Some people look to social media and watching YouTube videos to search to fulfill the desire for true enjoyment that God gave us. Others look to clothes, shoes, or even sports to satisfy numerous other longings.
The more we give in to our desires for things other than Jesus, the more restless and unsatisfied we will begin to feel. We may even begin to feel depressed and anxious.
When we find our fulfillment in other things besides Christ, we are finding our awe in other things beside God. In Paul Tripp’s book, Awe, he writes about finding our satisfaction and awe in Christ.
In other words, when we are in awe of God and seeking him, Christ will be what fulfills us. But when we are in awe of ourselves, sports, other people, etc., we will seek for fulfillment in other things besides Christ.
We must remember that we are in a spiritual battle, and we must arm ourselves with the thinking of Christ (1 Peter 4:1a). We need to remind ourselves of the goodness of God, and all that he’s done for us. By reminding ourselves of truth, through the work of the Holy Spirit, we will seek for fulfillment in Christ.
When we realize we’ve been seeking fulfillment in other things beside Christ, we need to repent. Repent literally means “to turn away from,” so in this case, it’s an act turning from whatever we’ve been seeking satisfaction in and moving closer towards Christ and remaining at the feet of Jesus.
“Turn to him, and you will find the grace you need to see the reality of your awe problem and the hope that only comes through Christ.”-Paul Tripp
Remember that God is a gracious God. He sent his son Jesus to die for us in our place. Praise God that he rose from the grave three days later, and he wants to have a relationship with us! The relationship he offers is truly fulfilling and satisfying. It results in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
As we meditate on these truths, as we remember the price our savior paid for us, how can we not be in awe of him?
For those of you who would like to learn more about being in awe of God and seeking fulfillment in him, I encourage you to purchase a copy of Paul Tripp’s book:
