The Signs of the Times, vol. 21

April 25, 1895

“Satisfaction” The Signs of the Times, 21, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

“There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.” Isaiah 48:22. “The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.” Isaiah 57:20. “From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” James 4:1-3. SITI April 25, 1895, page 261.1

This is a description of man by nature. Everywhere we find unrest and dissatisfaction. The poor have no cause to envy the rich, for discontent is found in the mansions as well as in the hovel. Those in any station of life who are perfectly contented, are in a very small minority. Everywhere we see people working for happiness in various ways, vainly confident that they will find it if they pursue the object of their desires for enough. SITI April 25, 1895, page 261.2

Although these longings are so often for things forbidden, and for that which only increases the dissatisfaction, it is God himself who has implanted this in the human heart. It is not that God has caused men to desire unlawful things, but that the desire of unlawful things is only the perversion of a desire which God himself has planted in man. SITI April 25, 1895, page 261.3

God is a bounteous provider. He scatters his benefits with a lavish hand. He desires that men should enjoy the abundance which his love has prepared, and that they should be satisfied. He is no niggard, neither is he a tyrant. He knows what will perfectly satisfy every soul, yet he never attempts to compel any one to find satisfaction in his way. He knows that no one can be satisfied under compulsion, and that even that which is real will not satisfy unless it is the individual’s own choice. So he gives every one full liberty to choose whatever he will. SITI April 25, 1895, page 261.4

Jesus Christ is “the Desire of all nations.” Habakkuk 2:7. There are comparatively few of the people in the world who know him and who recognize him as the object of their desire, but it is a fact that all the varied longings of the human heart can be satisfied in Christ, and in him alone. God has implanted desires in every soul which can be satisfied only by the possession of Christ, then, they may see in him the object of their desires and be drawn to him. The devil’s work is to deceive people with the thought that those desires may be satisfied in some other way than by the possession of Christ. SITI April 25, 1895, page 261.5

David was a man of like passions with other men. His flesh was sinful, and as full of evil desires as any other human flesh. Yet when the Spirit enlightened his understanding, he said, “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee; my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.” Psalm 62:1. And again: “My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.” Psalm 84:2. SITI April 25, 1895, page 261.6

How can it be made to appear that the appetites and lusts of the flesh are really the crying out of the flesh after God?—Simply by the fact that no man was ever yet satisfied by the indulgence of fleshly appetites and lusts. The drunkard drinks to satisfy a craving that is never satisfied. The vicious and licentious man, in common with the miser, finds no satisfaction in the gratification of his passion. The reason why he follows the lusts of the flesh so eagerly, is that they make him their slave, deluding him with the idea that the next time he will find that complete satisfaction which evades him this time. The Lord, knowing that he alone can give the soul perfect and complete satisfaction, calls to us, saying, “Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” Isaiah 55:2. SITI April 25, 1895, page 261.7

What are we to eat?—The flesh of Christ, which is true meat. Of those who obey the call, and eat of his fullness, it is said: “They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.” Psalm 36:8. SITI April 25, 1895, page 261.8

What a wonderful God is ours! How tender, and loving, and thoughtful! What wonderful provision he has made for the salvation of every soul! He has so constituted man that he cannot find peace and rest outside of himself; for the reason that everything outside of him is death, and in him alone is life and safety. Those unsatisfied longings of weary hearts are but a proof of the tender, loving care of the Father above, in that he will not leave any of his children without continually reminding them of the fullness that he has to bestow; for every want felt by mankind is but the announcement, if they would recognize it so, of the fact that God has something which he wishes to give us,—something which will satisfy the want. Only at his hand can “the desire of every living thing” be satisfied. Psalm 145:16. SITI April 25, 1895, page 261.9

Thus God has provided comfort for us, even from our very weaknesses and lusts. Here is help for the tempted. No matter how much the flesh cries out for sinful pleasure, we may be assured that those things are “deceitful lusts,” that will not give the satisfaction they promise; and then the comfort comes in the knowledge of the fact that the longing is in reality for Christ, and that by accepting him for all that he is, the desire will be satisfied. There is life and victory in that. Knowing that, we may count it all joy when we fall into divers temptations, because with the very temptation he provides the way of escape, that we may be able to bear it. Then we shall be able to sing:— SITI April 25, 1895, page 261.10

“O Christ, in thee my soul hath found,
And found in thee alone,
The peace, the joy, I sought so long.
The bliss till now unknown. SITI April 25, 1895, page 261.11

“Now none but Christ can satisfy;
None other name for me;
There’s love, and live, and lasting joy,
Lord Jesus, found in thee.” SITI April 25, 1895, page 261.12