Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing

Do you know the song by Marvin Gaye? Ain't nothing like the real thing. How true. Sometimes we try so many thing to replace what we really want and need but they never measure up to having the real thing.
Why should we give so much to pusuing God? Matt 6:33 says we should seek first the kingdom and everything else we need will be added to us. Seek First. Is the first thing we seek what God wants? Why should we seek God first?

Because there ain't nothing like the real thing. Sure, we can be kinda happy, be kinda satisfied, have kinda good relationships, but they don't compare to having the real thing. Like the scene in Good Will Hunting where Matt Damon and Robin Williams are having their conversation on the park bench. He says to Will that if he asked him about love, he'd probably quote a sonnet from Shakespeare, but that he had no idea what it was like to really love someone. He said that if he asked him about Michelangelo, he'd come up with all kinds of details, but that he had no idea what it was like to stand at the Sistine chapel and to look up at that, to smell what it's like to really be there.
Why give so much to pursuing God? Because there ain't nothing like the real thing.

Don't make your choices to quickly

What is the motivation behind your choices? Have you ever been burned by a choice you made that seemed like a no brainer before you made it? Have you every sat and spent hours weighing out the pros and cons to a decision only to find out that you still made the wrong choice? Don't feel bad, your not the first person to make a wrong decision based upon your misinformation. In the book of Joshua, chapter eight is the story of the Gibeonites deception. They basically disguised themselves and sold Joshua a story to get him to make a treaty with them. Joshua does his best to try and figure out if their story is true, and by all appearances they are telling the truth. So Joshua, based upon his own conclusions from false information, decides to honor their request for a treaty. Of course the story goes on to tell how the Gibeonites really outsmarted Joshua and as a results Joshua has to keep them around.

But, you say, how could Joshua have done any different? He was making the best educated guess that he could make using the information given him. I agree, he was but was there something more he could have done? The answer lies in Joshua 9:14,"The Isrealites sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the Lord. (TNIV)" Joshua failed to ask the one person who would probably help him make his decision. How many times do you make decisions and not inquire of the Lord? Am I the only one who has reap a disaster from a poor choice that I made only to realize in hindsight that I never bothered to even pray about my decision? Let's take a lesson from Joshua, realize that things are not always the way that I perceive them and maybe I should get a different opinion on the matter, namely God. Read your Bible, spend time in pray, ask godly people you can trust, whatever, just make sure you inquire of the Lord.