Harvest Daily 05/21/04

Harvest Daily Devotional
by Pastor Greg Laurie

May 21, 2004
The Real Thing

"But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God."  (Acts 20:24)

Imagine that you have just come out of a wonderful restaurant and had a great meal.  You are thinking, "That was great."  Then you happen to glance over at the gutter, where you notice a discarded burrito from a fast-food restaurant.  Are you going to say, "All right!  A burrito!" and pick it up?  Of course not.  You will not eat that thing, because you are satisfied.  You have just experienced the real thing.  You don't want a cheap imitation.

In the same way, when you know the Lord and have been experiencing a real relationship with Him and then the devil comes along and offers you some cheap imitation, you will see it for what it is.  When you see who Jesus is, then you see what the world is.  But if you are only looking at this world and not spending enough time with the Lord, you will have a diminished view of God and an exalted view of this world - when it should be the other way around.

Everything you need in life is found in a relationship with God.  You can discover that the easy way or the hard way.  Are you finishing your race with joy?  Or, are you going outside of your relationship with the Lord, trying to find some happiness that this world might offer?  I can tell you right now that it will be a dead-end street.  It will never satisfy you, because once you have had the real thing, cheap imitations will never suffice.

Copyright (c) 2004 by Harvest Ministries.  All rights reserved.  Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New King James Version, copyright (c) 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.