“Sex, sex, sex!” Have you noticed how our culture worships sexual gratification—sexual fulfillment achieved with anyone, any time and in any way you want?  My guess is that any alien who landed on Planet Earth to research our species would have to conclude one thing just from the 372 million pornographic pages available on the Internet (according to Rita Cosby, MSNBC): Sex is god of the human race.

Proverbs warns us repeatedly that when we ignore God’s promise to fully satisfy our sexual desires through a loving, life-long and faithful relationship with the person to whom we are married, we will end up elevating the world’s promise of sensual satisfaction to god-like status—at our own peril. You see, money, power, fame, relationships, possessions and sex—especially sex—are what C.S. Lewis referred to as the “sweet poison of the false infinite.” These are what we might call substitute sacreds—the surrogates we desperately use to fill the emptiness of our dissatisfied lives. In reality, however, no substitute sacred ever fulfills what it so brazenly promises. Only the one true Sacred can do that!

St. Augustine said, “Sin comes when we take a perfectly natural desire or longing or ambition and try desperately to fulfill it without God…All these good things, and all our security, are rightly found only and completely in him.”

God longs for us to come to him with our needy souls so he can graciously and abundantly and unendingly satisfy our deepest longings and most powerful passions—in his way and in his time. As Augustine said, God has created us for himself, and we will only find satisfaction when we find our satisfaction in him. Again, that includes our sexual needs fulfilled according to God’s design.

Annie Dillard tells of an experiment in which entomologists enticed male butterflies with a painted cardboard replica larger and more enticing than the females of their species. These male butterflies would repeatedly and eagerly mount the colorful cardboard cutout to mate with it, while nearby, the real, living female butterfly enticingly opened and closed her wings in vain.

Friend, the real, living God is near, longing to cover you in the shadow of his wings, where he will provide for you soul-satisfaction in every dimension of your being—even the sexual.  Why settle for a substitute sacred when the real Divine awaits!

In reality, sin is our attempt to fill a void that only God can fill.

Your Assignment, Should You Choose To Accept It:

Make a conscious effort today to identify all the substitute sacreds along your path.  My guess is that you’ll probably lose count before the day is out, since there will be so many.  Each time you are enticed with money, sex or power, stop and give thanks to God that he has instead given you eternal wealth, true satisfaction, and spiritual authority—far more gratifying than the sweet poison of these false infinites.