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It is nearly impossible to walk through the check-out line at the grocery store without being confronted with 17 different magazines offering you at least 249 hot new sex tips. It is embarrassing to see the absolute desperation of marketers to grab people’s attention by offering hope to find satisfaction in ways that only lead to greater emptiness. It is like trying to sell a byproduct. You can not have a byproduct without first producing the original. A byproduct is only produced when you are fully committed to the process of creating something else! A healthy, fulfilling sexual relationship is a BYPRODUCT that results from pursuing a committed marriage relationship where fears and insecurities are lovingly dealt with and love and support is continually offered. For some reason, they don’t put that on the magazine cover?! But why? I believe it’s because we don’t want things to be byproducts, we want to skip the process and have what we want now.
Some of the most profitable, recognizable products and brands in America were created as a byproduct of trying to do something else. Play-Doh was supposed to be a wallpaper cleaner, not a kid’s toy. Coca-Cola was supposed to be a headache medicine, not the most famous soft drink in the world. WD-40 was supposed to keep rockets from exploding, not keep your door from squeaking (these are true stories). In each of these situations, incredibly profitable, amazing products that have impacted our lives greatly were created as the result of not trying to create them! Had these inventors set out to create the products we now know and love they never would have been able to do it. The same is true in our lives when we try to create happiness, or peace, or joy in our homes, or unity in our marriages. All of these things are byproducts and can not be produced by pursuing them… they only come as result of pursuing the One who can create them. His Name is Jesus.
In Matthew 6:33 Jesus reminds us to ‘seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.’ Unfortunately, we tend to seek ‘the things’ (peace, happiness, relationships, fulfillment) and simply ask God to bless us as we pursue those ‘things’. It never works that way. In truth, those of us in the Church haven’t done a great job of keeping this reality front-and-center in our lives. We pray for healing, and salvation, and unity and prosperity but spend very little time praying to know God better. God WANTS people to experience ALL of these things and none of them are hard for Him to accomplish. He just wants us to remember that HE is the prize. Knowing and relating to and experiencing life with Him is the goal. When we focus on Him that way, celebrating and honoring and repenting and continually coming closer to Him, the byproducts show up effortlessly.
Maybe you’re trying to ‘buy products’ of financial peace, or relational harmony, or personal contentment but they are all byproducts that come from drawing close to God in truth, love and obedience. Financial peace doesn’t come from getting more and pouring it into a leaky cup, it comes from knowing the One who is your provider and supplier. Know Him and His ways (and follow them) and the resource and security will show up. Relational harmony doesn’t come from spending yourself and denying your hurts, it comes from relating to Him and finding your peace and fulfillment in knowing Him. Then you will be able to rightly relate to others. And personal contentment isn’t found in having and doing more, it is found in resting in Him. Draw near to the Lord today and He will draw near to you. When you pursue Him, the byproducts will blow you away. And the best part is, they won’t even be as important anymore because of the exceeding joy of experiencing THE REAL THING! Everything you need today will be found by not pursuing it, but by pursuing Him. Selah.
“…But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” – Matthew 6:33 NIV
“…I am your shield, your very great reward.” – Genesis 15:1 NIV
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