<\/p>\n
\u201cThen Samuel said to the people, \u2018Do not fear. You have done all this wickedness; yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing’\u201d (1 Samuel 12:20,21).<\/p>\n
LIKE THE PEOPLE OF SAMUEL\u2019S DAY, WE NEED TO BE WARNED AGAINST GOING AFTER \u201cEMPTY THINGS WHICH CANNOT PROFIT OR DELIVER.\u201d Empty things are those that are fruitless and ineffective. They promise great thirst-quenching fulfillments but deliver nothing but dryness and dust in the end. And empty things are all that we can seek if we \u201cturn aside from following the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n
God Himself is what we were created to seek. When we reach forward to Him, we\u2019re doing the most natural thing in the world. \u201cEternity\u201d has been planted in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11), and that being true, we can\u2019t really not<\/em> need God. But if God is what we need, we must be careful to give our hearts what they need and nothing less than that. Empty things will leave our hearts empty!<\/p>\n But as we determine to reach for the right things, it is sometimes hard to be honest about what we\u2019re really reaching for. We tell ourselves that it\u2019s God we\u2019re reaching for when in reality it\u2019s certain blessings from<\/em> God that we\u2019re primarily interested in. It\u2019s not God Himself that we seek but only a certain path to God. And if our path to God turns out to be different from what we had in mind, we sometimes falter in our faithfulness. But we need to be like Job, who was just as willing to trust God when it didn\u2019t \u201cpay\u201d as when it did. It must be God that we want, period.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a fact that we are a \u201creaching people.\u201d By our very nature, we strain forward, eager to get in touch with something that can fill our needs. Foolishly, however, we often reach for the wrong things, things that can\u2019t satisfy us in the long run. And this is no small problem; it\u2019s a matter of life and death. If in our need we grasp the wrong things, we doom ourselves to death. So the question is not really whether we\u2019ll reach forward \u2014 we will satisfy our desires in one way or another. The only question is whether our \u201csatisfactions\u201d will kill us or not. It pays a thirsty man to be very careful what he allows himself to drink.<\/p>\n \u201cThirst must be quenched! If our desires are not met by God, we will quickly find something else to alleviate our thirst\u201d (Erwin W. Lutzer).<\/p>\n Gary Henry \u2013 WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com<\/p>\n