Never Enough

Have you ever heard a wealthy person say "I think this job and salary is all I will ever need, I have finally found satisfaction." or a drug addict say "This shot of heroine will give me the perfect, everlasting high and I will not desire it any more." John D. Rockefeller was once asked in an interview "How many more dollars until your satisfied?" He answered, "Just one more dollar". In other words, he will never be satisfied. In his book The Heroin Diaries Nikki Sixx is speaking about his drug addiction and says "when you can’t climb your way out of such a hole, you tend to crouch down and call it home…". What a sense of hopelessness. As I was reading yesterday I was in the book of Haggai and I came across these verses:

Haggai 1: 5,6 -   5Now, therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. 6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

"Give careful thought to your ways." What a graceful warning God gives. He does not drop the hammer, he does not come down with a repent or perish type of response. He says give careful thought to your ways. Think about what you are doing with your life. What are you pursuing, what are you chasing, what are you looking to for fulfillment? In the examples above John D. Rockerfeller was the wealthiest man in the world at the time he said this. Nikki Sixx was a member of one of the most successful rock bands of all time when he penned this entry in his diary. Motley Crue has sold over 50 million albums and made millions upon millions of dollars. 

Listen to the words of King Solomon, the wealthiest person to have ever lived:

Ecclesiastes 2:10, 11 - 10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil. 11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;  nothing was gained under the sun.

So whats the answer? What are we to do? Look at the next few verses:

Haggai 1:7-9 - 7"Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. 8Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the LORD. 9 You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.

I think what these verses are saying is we need to focus our energies and efforts on our relationship with God. True satisfaction will only be found in a relationship with God through his son Christ. 

John 10: 10 - ...I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

The word full, or abundantly in some translations, is the Greek word perissos which means exceeding abundantly, supremely. This is not something the world can offer no matter how much money we have, no matter how hard we work no matter how high we climb on the ladder of success. This can only come from a relationship with Christ. 

So how much longer are you going to put coins in a bag with holes in it. How much longer are you going to chase after the wind? You can stop at any time!