Turning from Vanity and Dissatisfaction

I continually need the Spirit to fan the flame of the mysterious longing for eternity that the Father has placed in my heart, and I’m so thankful he does.

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

The older I get, the more I gravitate toward prayer books and liturgy because they help to reorient me. 

I’m on the lookout for a new car. That means my antenna, so to speak, is up, knowing I’m going to have to play a game. In my experience, that usually starts with a dealership’s website in which I input my contact info and am contacted by a woman. In this case, her name was Joy. Then, when you arrive at the dealership, a man named George approaches you with the hard sell. In this case, his name was Ralph. 

It’s a classic case of bait and switch, as if I care who sells or leases me a car. I just roll my eyes and accept it as part of the dance. 

This comes on the heels of a bad experience at a hotel, then with their corporate office. So, I’m tired, emotionally spent and probably not in a great frame of mind. Then I came across these words from a Puritan prayer book titled The Valley of Vision and they changed everything:

May I rejoice that, while men die, the Lord lives;

that, while all creatures are broken reeds,

empty cisterns,

fading flowers,

withering grass,

he is the Rock of Ages, the Fountain

of living waters.

Turn my heart from vanity,

from dissatisfactions,

from uncertainties of the present state,

to an eternal interest in Christ.

We need these little reminders. I do, anyway. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about Ecclesiastes 3:11 (AMP) recently. It says, “He [God] has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time. He has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart [a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy, except God] …”

I continually need him to fan the flame of that mysterious longing, and I’m so thankful he does. Car problems and bad hotel stays are temporary. But Christ is eternal. He’s the Rock of Ages; the Fountain of living waters. All earthly cares and concerns fade and wither as I’m brought back to this truth time and time again.