Mega-Millions: Not Nearly a Sure Thing

Our God is the One Who can truly satisfy the longings of our hearts...here is what Psalm 145 has to say:
16 You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing.
17 The Lord is righteous in all His ways, Gracious in all His works.
18 The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.
19 He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them.
 
We live in an age of instant gratification, and people are longing for what will truly satisfy our hearts - some believe that riches, material possessions will satisfy; others believe that a relationship will satisfy those desires; many look for lasting satisfaction in their work and service.   But, the Bible teaches us that only through abiding in Christ can we experience God's best for us - the satisfaction and joy that He wants us to have.

Isaiah 55 reminds us that God is our source of satisfaction:
1 "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance.
 
The frenzy over Mega Millions has basically past, as 3 winners will be splitting the $640 million dollar jackpot - before taxes, that is.   And, the millions who bought tickets are experiencing quite a bit of disappointment in their search for instant gratification.
 
It has been said that a lottery is a tax on the poor, and that a disproportionate number of people with low-incomes play the lottery - in fact, people in the higher income brackets only play when there's a large jackpot, apparently.  And, a report surfaced late last week that said that people who make $13,000 a year and under spend 9% of their income on the lottery - that is according to the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty. 
 
PBS says that the real chances of winning are one in 176 million.   Some more reasonable odds, by comparison, getting hit by falling airplane parts, 17 times more likely. Or being hit by lightning, that's 50 times more likely to happen than winning the Mega Millions take. 
Ron Hutchcraft of A Word With You commented on how we pursue so many things that do not satisfy:

Of course, it's human nature to attach our dreams to getting "more." And the cash lottery isn't the only one we bet on. Some of us bet on the love lottery, thinking that finding the right someone to love us will make our dreams come true. But, as so many have discovered, winning at love doesn't guarantee happiness. And too often, the dream turns out to be a nightmare.


Life has lots of lotteries you can spend on, hoping your dreams will come true. The success lottery...the "be the best" lottery...the perfection lottery - perfect home, perfect kids, perfect image...the "affair" lottery. Buy lots of tickets...dream your "better life" dream. If you lose, you think that's why you're unhappy. If you win, you're more baffled than ever about why you're not happy.

He goes on to say that:

And no matter how deep we dig, we'll never come up with enough to win forgiveness or peace or eternal life. But the price has been paid.


On Good Friday. By Jesus. On a cross. That's where, "though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that by His poverty He could make you rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9 ).

My spiritual bankruptcy traded for His eternal treasure. Because He gave it all. It was an offer I could not resist.

A relationship with Jesus will satisfy that deep desires of our hearts - He has paid the price to eliminate the sin-barrier that keeps us from enjoying life and walking in His peace...we can take our chances on winning some sort of lottery, but only knowing Him can produce the sure way to eternal life - and abundant life here on earth.