Window Shopping

Window Shopping
—pamela spurling

Every day, it seems, we're searching for something. That age old question: "what is the meaning of life" seems to linger in the back of our mind. We're longing for significance, longing for worth or for something of value to come our way. We wonder if we're alone or if we're the only one dealing with the particular life situations we're facing. So we search---as if shopping for answers---but more often than not, we don't find answers or solutions or remedies for our questions or inner longings. So we keep looking. Window shopping. We heap onto ourselves books, articles, Bible studies and devotionals---we read, we search, we yearn---but we never come to that place of contentment for which we truly long.

It's only when we stop browsing, stop window shopping and start shopping to buy, that we will begin to take hold of the key that will open the door of our heart to accept the LORD what the LORD has for us. But, so often, we're really not interested in the real work of shopping to buy, the commitment of owning the solution or the responsibility for applying the information we might acquire. So... we're content to simply window shop... ever looking but never investing.

We do this, perhaps, in many areas of our lives... we want the results, but we're not really willing to make the necessary sacrifices to attain them. We see beautiful homes, neatly arranged and spotlessly clean and we long for the same to be ours---but we're not really willing to part with our useless things or invest the time to eliminate clutter and deep clean our spaces. Or, we see a woman we consider to be beautiful and trim and fit---we long for that same form and yet aren't willing to eliminate those things that hinder our health and we aren't eager to put in the necessary work to achieve that appearance.

And so it is, with the longings we have for the LORD and His righteousness. We must decide to stop window shopping as we look into His Word---and we must determine to buy the Truth and sell it not. The LORD tells us that we will know the Truth and the Truth shall set us free. And it is for freedom that we have been saved. We're no longer bound by the yoke of sin and yet, we live in bondage to so many things that hinder the freedom we have in Christ.

So what's the Key? The key, in reality is Jesus. The answer is too simple---it's so simple that we actually complicate it by adding to it----and I think this is where the window shopping begins. We start off with the key and then attempt to carrying it around, trying to fit the key into all the doors the world offers. The key doesn't seem to fit in any door at all and so we keep looking and plodding along. Just like the immaculate home or the athletic body---the price seems too high to us and the work too difficult and so we attempt our own way to achieve the results---but there is no other way to achieve the desired results----just as there is no other way to have the joy and benefits of a faithful life than simply walking with the LORD. He is both the Key and the Door at once.

Jesus: the Key and the Door. He is our righteousness, He is our light and life. It's not Jesus and___________. It's just Jesus. Jesus alone.

I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich;
and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear;
and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Revelation 3.18

The Word says come unto me, all you that are heavy laden and I will give you rest. We're weary at the end of our window shopping... our feet and back aches, our arms ache from being crossed so tightly all the time and we suffer fatigue from all the looking and wandering. So it is with a life of wandering and searching---longing and yearning. In all of that, *self* is the focus---self will never be satisfied---self will never be happy when self is in control. Self is greedy and domineering and unstable. Self wanders... rummages around , ravenous for whatever it wants at the moment but is never ever satisfied. Self looks to self to be satisfied. Self is our greatest personal enemy and window shopping, our greatest waste.

With my whole heart have I sought thee:
O let me not wander from thy commandments.
Psalm 119.10

But when we give self to God... and yield self to His care and His control, only then will we begin the journey of owning the Truth. We'll never again be satisfied with the counterfeit of looking in windows hoping to find satisfaction for our desires. When our desire is met in Jesus, all others will be counterfeit. We will then seek all our refreshment in the Word and in His Word we will find all that we need for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. His Word will be a lamp unto our feet and light unto our paths. He will guide us with His eye and will keep our feet from falling. His law will be our delight and will be our meditation day and night.

In our We will know that Jesus is all we really want and all we really need.

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you,
that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
1John 1.5

sincerely, pamela