Real Chocolate

I wish more of my brothers and sisters in Christ personally realized the joy in spending a daily morning time with the Father.  So many of my "family friends" (my term of endearment for brothers and sisters in Christ) talk about just not being able to find time.  I understand this very well, but wish I could reveal to them in a tangent fashion just how important and encouraging it is.  When I first made the decision to have daily devotions and so needed to get up a half hour earlier every day, it was difficult to say the least.  I missed more days than I hit.  However, somewhere along the way I started recognizing God's still, small voice as I read.  Examples of life events that give a good, if not perfect, picture of what God wanted to reveal to me would pop into my head and give me clearer understanding.  The more this happened, the more I wanted to know and hear.  Eventually it got to the place where God's Word was and is the first thing on my mind when I waken.  No, I am not perfect in this.  There are days when things happen, like being ill, taking care of someone who is ill, having an unexpected phone call that changes my day completely or simply being so exhausted, I have to wait until later.  Even on those days my heart cries out to get into the word and hear His voice so as to calm and reassure me that all is well.  Those are the times I cry out in prayer for God to make the way and He always does if I pay attention.  If all this sounds fantasy, I thought so at one time myself, so don't feel bad.  It is something that you must experience for yourself to realize the possibility.

I admit that I am a very determined person.  Once I make up my mind to do or not do something, I follow through, even if it takes me longer than originally planned.  When I told the doctor I didn't want to take heart medicine and he told me that I would need to stay away from caffeine and chocolate, I decided to do exactly that.  I have refrained from both for over twenty years now, and I absolutely adored chocolate.  Dessert wasn't dessert without it.  The smell of it made me drool.  The first two weeks were a real struggle.  The next four were hard, but a bit easier.  After that it became easier and easier until I came to the point that the smell did nothing for me and the taste of it was extremely bitter.  I know this because I tried eating a homemade chocolate chip cookie with one chip in it just to see what would happen.  When I came to the chip (and I was deliberately not paying attention to when that would happen) that tiny little thing filled my mouth with bitterness.  I had to get a drink of water.

Life without Jesus is much the same.  We walk around addicted to this world and don't even realize it.  All we know is we want more.  When we wake in the morning we want more.  We go out searching for it, not knowing exactly what it is we are looking for, but searching just the same.  Every once in a while we come across something that makes us think, "That's it!!  That's what I need to relax and make me happy!!"  We then pursue it until we have it just to find out we must keep looking.  That wasn't it after all.  Just like my addiction to chocolate;  I would see a chocolate cake and think it would fulfill that desire within me.  After eating it, I discovered I now wanted a brownie or cookie or Almond Joy, etc.  No matter what form it came in or how much of it I consumed, I always wanted more.  If/when we come to the place of no longer wanting quick fixes, but something solid and unchanging, something that will remain with us so that we no longer crave the chocolate things of this world any longer, then, and only then will we be willing to take the chance of letting it all go.  Once we do, if we refuse to turn back, we will eventually discover how bitter our life has really become and begin searching for the One that fills every craving - Jesus.

This is not what I planned to write about.  I was planning on writing about coats.  I guess I will save that for another day, unless the Lord decides differently.  Until then, may all who read this be blessed with understanding their cravings in life and come to the realization that there is only One that can fill that desire.

Father God, I pray for my family, my friends, my acquaintances, all those I have never met, that they might begin to let go of the cravings of this world and turn to Jesus, the only person who can fill that spot that is always crying out for more. 

Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.  But the water I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."  John 4:13  (NKJV)