Chasing the Rainbow - Encouragement Café - Mar. 3, 2014

Chasing the Rainbow

Café Menu for Monday, March 3, 2014

Today’s Special is:  Where’s the Gold

Carefully prepared just for you by your friend, Stephanie Davis

Main Ingredient:

And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

– 2 Corinthians 9:8 NIV

Entrée: 

Chasing after the rainbow … sigh …

How many times have I done this?  Enough to know that what awaits you at the end is not a pot of gold.  No what awaits you is just as a friend of mine once said ... “emptiness, frustration and disappointment”.

However, our society would have you think differently.  As a society, in our pursuit to happiness we have adopted an “anything goes” attitude.  Where do we draw the line?  When do we simply become content?

We continue on our search in the next best thing, trading out the old and comfortable for the new and exciting only to be met again by emptiness, frustration and disappointment.  Why?

Because the things we are chasing … these rainbows … are never-ending.  They will go on as long as our eyes focus on the “riches” they promise to provide.

“Oh, how I prospered!  I left all my predecessors in Jerusalem far behind, left them behind in the dust. What’s more, I kept a clear head through it all.  Everything I wanted I took—I never said no to myself.  I gave in to every impulse, held back nothing.  I sucked the marrow of pleasure out of every task—my reward to myself for a hard day’s work! Then I took a good look at everything I’d done, looked at all the sweat and hard work.  But when I looked, I saw nothing but smoke.  Smoke and spitting into the wind.  There was nothing to any of it.  Nothing.”

– Ecclesiastes 2:9-11 The Message

It’s time to start saying no to ourselves and start saying yes to God.  It’s time to begin pursuing Him with a heart that desires nothing more than to be in His will.  It’s time to begin to live the life Jesus died to give us!

Take Out:

Will you join me and embrace this freedom?  Will you say no to a world that consistently leaves us empty, and say yes to the God Who can and will leave you satisfied? 

As you go through your day think about what things you are chasing after.  Are those things bringing you closer to the feet of Jesus?  Or are they taking you further from His side?  

Dessert:

Gracious Heavenly Father… as I come before Your throne today, I do so with a humble heart, fully recognizing You for Who You are and me for what I am not.  I’ve gotten so caught up in the pursuit of my own selfish desires.  Thinking that this world could actually provide me with something You can’t, and the truth is You are the only One who can provide the things I need. 

Oh God, please forgive me for straying.  Capture my heart.  Fix my eyes on You.  Sweet Lord, create in me a desire to chase after You alone.  For you truly are the only One Who can satisfy.  May my life point others to You, revealing the source of glorious riches untold.  For it’s in Jesus’ name I pray, amen.

For more encouragement, visit Stephanie at A Place for Every Woman, where … regardless of where you are on your walk with the Father ... There is a place for EVERY woman at the foot of the Cross.

© 2014 by Stephanie Davis.  All rights reserved.

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