Satisfied in Dry Lands

Isaiah 58:11 The LORD will always lead you and satisfy your needs in dry lands. He will give strength to your bones. You will be like a garden that has plenty of water, like a spring that never goes dry.

We all yearn for a sense of deep satisfaction with our lot in life; a contentment that’s equally present in the good and the bad; an abiding peace that persists through every stage of our lives.

Sadly, we all too often go looking for satisfaction, for contentment, for peace in the wrong places, to our own ruin. Even though he never came to faith in Jesus, prominent 20^th century psychologist Carl Jung was able to put his finger on the reason for that:

People become neurotic when they content themselves with inadequate or wrong answers to the questions of life. They seek position, marriage, reputation, outward success of money, and yet remain unhappy and neurotic even when they have attained what they were seeking.

I think we’ve all chased satisfaction in the wrong places and come up with answers that never truly satisfy. Israel’s King Solomon pointed that out over three thousand years ago:

Ecclesiastes 5:10,11 Those who love money will never be satisfied with the money they have. Those who love wealth will not be satisfied when they get more and more.

The truth is that the things of this can world never truly satisfy. We need something that abides, that persists, through every stage of life.

Isaiah 58:11 The LORD will always lead you and satisfy your needs in dry lands. He will give strength to your bones. You will be like a garden that has plenty of water, like a spring that never goes dry.

What a picture! The Lord will satisfy you in dry lands to the point you’ll be like a lush green garden, a spring that never runs dry. He is the answer – the only answer – to the fundamental questions of life that’ll bring you that deep satisfaction, that complete contentment, that persistent peace that you’ve been searching for.

That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.