Made For Love - Finding Rest in a Restless World

“This is what the LORD says: ‘Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom, or the powerful boast in their power, or the rich boast in their riches. But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the LORD who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. I, the LORD, have spoken!’” (Jeremiah 9:23-24, NLT)

“Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.” (James 1:17, NLT)

“You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.” (Psalm 16:11, NLT)

Yesterday we reflected on the restlessness of the human heart. We are created for eternity, yet we live within time, made for something, someone, that nothing in this world can fully satisfy. One way we cope with restlessness is through distraction. Another is more subtle, and perhaps harder for us to recognize. We take good, important things and make them supreme things, hoping they will fill within us what only God can.

Augustine wrote about the ordo amoris: the right ordering of love, in which God is loved above all things, and all other things are loved in relation to God.

John Calvin observed, “The mind of man is . . . a perpetual manufactory of idols.” He wasn’t speaking about literal figures or statues, but about our tendency to elevate respectable things like success, approval, family, productivity, or comfort into the sources of our meaning and significance. Instead of receiving them as gifts, we might base our identity on them. As Tim Keller later explained, we turn “good things into ultimate things.”

When we do this, our hearts reorient themselves. We place our hope and trust in that which was never meant to carry the weight of our whole selves. When we put our identity in anything other than Christ, our sense of self is precarious. No romantic partner, family, friend, or career—not even the best one—can fill the place in our hearts meant for God.

The prophet Jeremiah warned against boasting in wisdom, strength, or riches, pointing instead to knowing the Lord who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth (Jeremiah 9:23-24). Every good and perfect gift comes from Him (James 1:17), yet fullness of joy is found not in the gifts themselves, but in the Giver. It’s found in communion with God (Psalm 16:11).

When our love is rightly ordered, we can receive His good gifts in gladness and gratitude, knowing our security is found, first and foremost, in Christ.

Thoughts to Ponder

Where might you tend to look for a sense of worth, safety, or fulfillment apart from God? Imagine what it might be like to receive these gifts with gratitude without giving them supreme importance. Bring these reflections to God. Ask Him to lovingly reorder your loves.