Are You Satisfied?

Are You Satisfied?

By Sandra Tovar

I have been dealing with a strong feeling of being unsettled lately. This feeling has lasted for months. At first I thought it was because of work where we were going through a change in ownership.  Fear of not meeting  expections-- I was right but wrong at the same time. It only lasted a short while until I began to feel comfortable again with my job and extremely unfulfilled. At the same time I began looking at my relationship and blaming my unsettled feelings on the lack of time my husband and I were able to spend together. Once again we made efforts to have more date nights and make time for us with and without the kids but that sense of fulfillment was short lived. I began to feel guilt for feeling like the blessing of my job and the commitment from a great man and the love of my children were not enough for me.


So what is it? Why wasn't I satisfied? The only other thing I could think to find the answer was to search the Word of God. That has always worked for me in the past. That’s what I did. I pulled out my bible and began reading with no real direction where to start. So I stopped and prayed  and then I searched a few key words online and started to get a little more direction.  And there is was so crystal clear.

Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.”

It was the love of God and the connection to God that was missing in my life. I was thirsty but drinking from a fountain where I could never be completely fulfilled. It was God that I needed to seek after to settle my spirit and to make me feel complete. The connection to my purpose given by Him is what has been missing. A lot of the time we become restless in our spirit at the moment when God is about to start something new in us.


As a kid have you ever been anxious and not able to sleep because the next day is your birthday and you know you are going to get some new things maybe even some stuff you have been asking for. You try not to think about it but nothing you do settles your mind. Well I equate that to the feeling of restlessness in my spirit. I believe that God speaks to my spirit and the spirit in me knows that He has plans for us so nothing at the moment is satisfying. What do you do when you begin feeling like this?

First you pray and ask God for direction and for clear understanding of what you need to do.Then you study and meditate on His Word and maintain fellowship with other believers.Be obedient and live in your purpose.

That’s it. The bottom line is if you are not seeking God first in all that you do you will begin to feel unfulfilled, empty, restless, hopeless, etc… You have to maintain fellowship with God and always live your life based on the purpose and calling He has for you. The gifts He has given you must be put to use and you have to make time daily for His Word and for Prayer. Without them you lose that connection and that joy that you feel when you are close to Him and your blessing begin to feel like burdens. A strong connection with God will bring back the joy in all that you do and all that you have.


John 15:11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full.”

Can You Hear Me Now?

Can You Hear Me Now?

By Dwight Cunkle

Am I responsive to Jesus’ call to take up my cross daily, deny myself and come, follow Him into the world?

Luke 7: 31 “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? 32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;  we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’48 But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”

Jesus describes a people who are unresponsive, not in the mood. They can go through the motions of religion but lack passion to know and love Him and others. Like a sulky teenager, moping around, listless and bored, yet spurning all invitations and suggestions. But that is a space we have all inhabited from time to time.  What invitation to celebrate and give thanks might the Lord be making to me now, that I might not be in the mood to hear? And in what ways, that I tend not to notice, might the Lord be inviting me to sorrow and remorse for my sins-especially of focusing on others and things instead of love for Him and His word?

Read again. Can you hear the frustration in Jesus’s voice? The exasperation of one whose gentle invitations are spurned and ignored? Can I ask the Lord now to transform any moodiness in me? To help me hear his gentle  invitations in my life, and to respond with excitement and delight?

Reading biographical notes on the lives of saintly servants and martyrs inspires us to love and good works I think more than just reading popular books and certainly more than the social media and entertainment we subject ourselves to. Expose your mind to godly lives and see the Scripture come alive in daily living.

Baptized in Water and Infused by Holy Spirit

Baptized in Water 

and Infused by Holy Spirit

by Dwight Cunkle

Jn 20:22-23 receive Holy Spirit. Jn 7:37-39 those who believe could overflow with Holy Spirit after Jesus would be glorified. After apostles were filled and spoke then thousands believed and were baptized. Reading Acts we find numerous instances of people receiving Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues or prophesying. (Acts 2:37-41 See also 1 Cor 12 and 14)

     Imagine that you were an old broken down and abused car, You are bought restored to classic condition, with a filled fuel tank, and given new purpose and identity by being placed among a whole fleet of cars in a large garage. That is like being born again and even baptized in water. You are cleansed from the sins of your old nature and now belong to God as a member in His body. Holy Spirit enables you to share in the life of Jesus, But the car is waiting for combustion to move and the driver to direct.

     Now put the key in the ignition, strike the fire in the engine and feel the power of the engine and gas, Go out into the world to be and do what the car was remade to be and do. That is like being baptized into Holy Spirit and Holy Spirit infusing God’s power into you.

That is the Day of your Pentecost. Of course, like the disciples in Acts 4, you will need refilled as you give life to others and as God manifests gifts of Holy Spirit through you.

      Both baptismal experiences can happen at same time or may be separated because of lack of understanding or readiness and faith on our part. Water baptism is a sacrament offered by the authority of Christ’s representatives in the church (“whose sins you remit shall be remitted” Jn 20_22-23). Holy Spirit baptism can be effected by prayer of others for us but is like plunging cloth into dye until the whole cloth is transformed in the new color.

     We need the cleansing of water baptism and the joining in Christ’s body and life with other members. But we also need the fullness of Holy Spirit flowing from deep with us as Jesus said in John 7:37-38, that out of being will flow rivers of living water.  

     (Baptism in suffering is also a sharing in Christ’s life.)

     Luke 24 with Acts 1 shows how the disciples waited to be “clothed” and “filled” so they could be witnesses.