Stepping Stones: The World Is A Needy Place

Transformational Tip
The world is a very needy place....do not go there for your sustenance. All the world can provide are temporary band-aids at best...they aren't meant to be long term or the first or prime solution. Even when these temporary solutions are good and are provided by God, we often start to use them first and forget the provision came from God....to be used after we seek Him first. Learn to go to your Lord and depend on Him first. When you turn to Him, your weakness will be replaced with His power. Find completeness in God. Then He might provide for and speak to you directly or lead you to other people or things of this world to nourish you. When you depend on God first, you can then help other people without using them for your own needs. By letting God's light, which shines so brightly in you, shine brightly into the lives of others, you help others.
What do you look to first to meet your needs? Yourself (intellect, looks, a personality trait)... your feelings (anger, self-pity, anxiety, arrogance)....others or their opinions.... material things (sex, food, money, things, caffeine). Try a detox period from this "drug" you use to soothe yourself and suffer well instead by going to God's Word and see how He will speak to you.

Prayer
Dear Father God,
I confess that I often turn to the world for my needs, and many times what I take from the world keeps me separated from You. The merry-go-round of life seems to be spinning faster and faster, things seem out of control. Yet I know by Your Word and by my faith that there is a calm at the center of the storms in my life. This calm is only found through a union with You. Thank You my Father. Help me return to this center of calm...this soothing center more often, for this is where I will find completeness, Love, Joy and Peace. In Christ who met all our needs on the cross, AMEN

The Truth
The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.
10 And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.
Psalm 9:9-10
Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
2 I say to the LORD, "You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you."
3 As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.
4 The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.
Psalm 16:1-4
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.,
Galatians 5:22
No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
1 John 4:12