(ThyBlackMan.com)
Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV
“Orbis non sufficit”, or the world is not enough is more than a family crest and theme depicted within the fictional world of James Bond. I believe it conveys a truth worth remembering especially as it concerns the people of God. Too often we get tied and tangled up with the cares of this life because the world and its systems present themselves as an answer to man’s needs. We look over the vast landscape of the world and see all the great cities with their allure of wealth, fame, security, and peace, and trust that this will provide meaning. Careers of all kinds exist, and even created offer opportunities for those who meet the requirements or prerequisites. Therefore, quite naturally education and its systems abound to feed and nurture the minds of its students and prepare them to “conquer the world” in their particular field of interest. However, with all of these systems in place, and from all the opportunities for humanity to grasp and discover their purpose from whence cometh the despair and futility that exists in society?
Surely if the world and what it provides is all that we need for purpose and fulfillment why are many living in hopelessness? Doesn’t the world meet their desires? Or, is it that they desire much more than what the world offers? Furthermore, where do these desires come from and how can they be met if not provided for in this earthly realm? Perhaps Lewis was right, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
Dear child of God we must remember that we are eternal beings, not only Christians but all of humanity. We are spiritual beings, souls that exist in a physical body. As spiritual beings, it isn’t possible we could ever be satisfied with this natural world, and therefore hunger is seen from generation to generation laboring to acquire more. This chasing of the wind and futile pursuit is seen in the lives of prophets and poets, saints and scientists, philosophers, and philanthropists. Yet, in the end, all that is left is emptiness and exhaustion from the tireless quest for fulfillment. The Scriptures say it like this, “All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.” This is why many are weary and heavy-laden because as spiritual beings they’re trying to satisfy an eternal hunger with earthly food, but the world is not enough. Mankind inflamed by sensual passion pursues promiscuity in place of love because the world is not enough. Or, men and women out of envy and jealousy of each other will rob, steal, and defraud for possessions because the world is not enough. Moreover, some with an inflated sense of self-worth will kill their fellow man out of pride, or to obtain a position, because the world is not enough. We must conclude since the natural world can’t alleviate spiritual longings, that only eternal things or someone eternal can fulfill eternal beings.
Dear child of God, I believe God has set eternity in our hearts, a glimpse of our eternal purpose, a longing that He alone can satisfy, and we would do well to pursue Him as the object of our desires. An eternal creature could never be content with what the world supplies. This is why addictions and self-abuse are rampant because all of man’s attempts to please themselves leave much to be desired. Only God, who fills all in all, meets the requirement of fulfilling our destinies, purpose, and meaning. Keep this in mind dear Christian, because the enemy of our soul would have us smell the aroma of this natural world and tempt us to fill our eternal bellies with that which decays. He did this to Christ, yet Jesus responded, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”
So Christians don’t be distracted, nor deterred; remember what the Apostle Paul called those things in the world after he gained Christ; dung at worst, weak and beggarly elements at best. The world isn’t enough, but thank God, all of our sufficiency comes from the Lord-He’s more than enough. “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.” Blaise Pascal
Staff Writer; C. E. Davis
This man of God can also be found online over at; InfiniteTruth Devotion.
One may also drop an email: CEDavis@ThyBlackMan.com.