8 In Lystra there sat a man who was lame. He had been that way from birth and had never walked. 9 He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed 10 and called out, “Stand up on your feet!” At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.
11 When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” 12 Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. 13 The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them.
14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: 15 “Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. 16 In the past, he let all nations go their own way. 17 Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.” 18 Even with these words, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them.
19 Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. 20 But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.
-Acts 14:8-20
All of us have a God-shaped hole that desires to be filled. God created us to worship Him, but because of sin, our worship radar has been corrupted and messed up. Instead of choosing God to worship, we now choose all these others things to worship, but they can’t satisfy us.
See how quickly the crowd wanted to worship Paul and Baranabas. See how quickly they turned on them when they were not satisfied.
This reminds me of how I am when I get something new like a new phone, or a laptop, or whatever. At first, I’m super excited about the object, but after a few days or a few weeks, it doesn’t satisfy me in the same way. It’s like a kid at Christmas getting a gift he or she really wanted, but after a few weeks the toy is left lying around because the kid is no bored with it.
We’ll try to fill our God-shaped hole with toys. We’ll try to fill our God-shaped hole with relationships. We’ll try to fill our God-shaped hole with work. We’ll try to fill our God-shaped hole with stuff and money. But in the end the only thing that can fill our God-shaped hole is... well... God.
What are you trying to fill your God-shaped hole with?
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