The Deep-Rooted Pitfalls of Disillusionment and Dissatisfaction

It is wonderful to see such a full house, and we do offer our welcome to any guests that we have here with us today or online. Glad to have you here. Hope you're enjoying your Sabbath day.

Last time I was with you two weeks ago, we went over the Down and the Dumps letter Ds of the Devil.

As a brief recap, we went through five letter Ds that Satan uses, tools that he uses to attack and to cause us problems in our lives. We went through Doubt, which is spiritual doubt. It makes you question God's Word and His goodness. Discouragement makes you look at your problems rather than look at God.

Deception makes the wrong things seem attractive so that you'll want them more than the right things in life. We talked about delay. Delay makes you put off doing something so it never gets done, like reconciling with God or reconciling with your brother that we delay that. And then the fifth one that we looked at was defeat, which makes you feel like a failure so that you don't even try.

I'd like to build on that last message that I shared because there are some other tactics that Satan uses to influence how we look at our life. He wants us to focus more on the negative, more on the challenges, so that we become obsessed with them. In that last message, I talked about how sometimes we can obsess over our problems, that that becomes all that we think about.

I believe as we obsess over these things, as these five and the other tactics that Satan uses against us, these weights, they add up over time. And if they are not processed and worked on in a profitable way, they turn into a deeper-rooted problem in our life. These deeper-rooted problems are what I'd like to explore with you today, and there's just two of them. There's other ones I'm sure we could come up with, but these two seem to come up quite often. So today, let's explore the deep-rooted pitfalls of disillusionment and dissatisfaction, and how we can avoid allowing these roots to suffocate our lives. Disillusionment and dissatisfaction, because if we don't deal with these deeper-rooted problems, they will suffocate our lives. So as I mentioned, the first one is disillusionment. The definition, because I think we'd all maybe define this a little bit different, but I think this is a pretty good direct definition for disillusionment, is a feeling of disappointment resulting from the discovery that something is not as good as one believed it to be. The disappointment resulting from the discovery that something is not as good as one believed it to be. And that's from the Google dictionary.

In society all around us, many are becoming disillusioned about things in their life. Politics is one of those. I thought, enter the candidate's name, would be the one to turn this state around. And when that doesn't happen, and they've put their hope and their trust maybe on this person, they become disillusioned with politics completely. What about the idea that education equals jobs?

We know of many who go to college, they obtain a degree, they're told they'll be able to find jobs and make good money, only until after getting out into the work world realize it's a struggle or the pay's not there. They become maybe disillusioned on higher education or disillusioned on jobs, and they become get down about the situation that they're in.

What about jobs? Have you ever become disillusioned with a job? This job where somebody says it'll be this amazing opportunity, it works out wonderfully, you think it's going to be the best job in the world until you get behind the scenes and really see what it's like to work in that business or that company or in that industry.

A joke I've heard said before is, I like to eat sausage until I work at the factory and I saw how the sausage was made. That's something that's similar on the similar line of thought. Maybe you've become disillusioned with a job or an industry that you've had. And the last one from a society standpoint that I think has happened to many of us is, I think each generation feels like their generation is the one that will make the changes to society and find peace. Find a way to work in life. Find a way that we're going to fix the problems that the previous generations couldn't fix.

And then they become adults, they get jobs, they start buying homes, and they become full adults and realize these problems are not going to be fixed by mankind. And without a solid faith to support them that tells them why the problems won't be solved, many without that faith become disillusioned with society, disillusioned that we'll ever be able to have peace, happiness, and a good way of life. Becoming disillusioned with aspects of life is common today. What about in the church?

Truth be told, we can also become disillusioned when aspects of our congregation don't go the way that we think they would here today. Take a walk with me for those of you who've been in the church a long time and didn't grow up in the church.

What did you think when you first started attending a church of God congregation? In your mind, what did you think you would find when you walked in those doors, that first Sabbath? Some have said they thought God's church would be full of perfect people. Is that something that maybe you thought when you first started attending?

Others thought there would be peace and unity always and forever within the body of Christ. What did you expect when you first walked in your doors on that first Sabbath? Did the church match your expectations? Probably did in some ways, probably didn't in others. What about you who have been in the church for many years, over all these different years? Have you seen or experienced things that you didn't think you would see or experience from those that have God's Spirit? I think this is something I saw growing up in the church.

Many of you have grown up in the church. Consider this, as you've grown up among a group of people, often we don't see the problems that exist, nor understand the problems at all. It's like little kids. They think everything is just great. Everything is rainbows and unicorns, right? But then as you continue to live life, you become a teenager, you start being able to relate life with church and with people and problems.

You start to have maybe a different view. You see people. You see that their lives are in order, but then later on you realize there's problems beneath the surface with a lot of people. And the varnish of their lives begins to wear off. So whether you are new to the church or grow up in the church, becoming disillusioned is a real pitfall that can happen to us all.

Again, truth be told, if you are in a church, or any group for that matter, you will realize sooner than later that our congregation is made up of people with problems and with challenges in their lives. Why is it the case that we are not a perfect group of people? I think we all know the answer.

But should we be that perfect group of people? Because we have God's Spirit. We have His way of life right in front of us. We know His truth. But we also know that we have a weakness in our own character. Our own nature has its problems. Christ referenced this in Matthew 9 and verse 9. If you'll turn with me there as we start off today. Matthew 9 and verse 9.

We know God has called the weak of the world. And we know here in Matthew 9, Christ says He came to heal those who were sick. Matthew 9 and verse 9.

Here we have the account. It says, As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, Follow Me. And so He arose and followed Him. That's a great way to start. Matthew took the advice from Christ. He dropped what He was doing and He rose and followed Him. Just like each one of us has done in our lives.

Now it happened as Jesus sat at the table in the house that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? When Jesus heard that, He said to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. It's a profound statement that Christ made right there in verse 12. And then He goes on in 13, But go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. I think in a lot of ways this summarizes me and you. We are the weak. We are the ones with the problems in our lives. And that's why we're here. Because we need His help. We need a better way of life. But that doesn't just instantly make us perfect when we walk in those doors, does it? We need His help. We need His healing that only He can bring. Each of us here is a work in progress with God. We have our faults and our flaws. And at times, we don't act as Christians are called to act.

And this can cause one to become disillusioned if they give in to Satan's attacks of doubt, discouragement, or deception. One may doubt that this is God's church based on interactions with others. They may become deceived or discouraged, realizing that the people in this church aren't as good as maybe they once believed we were.

This is a challenge for each of us as we interact and serve those who are among us and those who have been called by God to be here. Let's never forget that, but that are not perfect people. Someone you know might have a problem that we ourselves have overcome. God works with us in His mercy and in maybe years of being in the church. We've overcome some of those challenges. God has rounded off some of those rough edges that we've had in our lives. So maybe you become frustrated because you see somebody that has that rough edge. Or someone may have a problem that you never had and you find yourself frustrated that they have this issue. Or someone handles a situation you believe should be handled differently and you may ask yourself, What are they thinking? I have to admit, I've asked that question myself. What are they thinking in the way that they're behaving or doing or talking? And when these things happen, we can become disillusioned with the whole church thing, the whole church aspect that we're part of. But when these thoughts enter our mind, I think we need to reevaluate the thought process behind what is going on in our minds. Because to me, I think there's a couple things, a couple different things going on, and this is just my opinion. But first, when we are new to the church, we're often shocked to see people behaving in ways that we feel they shouldn't. We are looking at their lives from either our own lens, meaning how I grew up in my household with the blessings that I had. I'm looking at them through my lens saying, What's wrong? Why aren't they? Why do they not have it all together? I'm looking at their life from my shoes. And we don't understand how someone could behave in this way. That's one way when we're new to the church. The second, when we grow up in the church or have spent quite a bit of time in the church, we're again shocked to see people behaving in ways that they shouldn't. We struggle, though, to understand why someone we have looked up to, someone maybe we've seen give sermonettes, someone that might have even led the Sabbath school or interacted with the team club, we're shocked that they're doing or saying things that go against what we feel God says that we should do or say. But all of us are perfect people, right? Were you a perfect person when you came into this church that very first day? Were you perfect 10, 5, 10, 15 years after attending here at services? Were you a perfect teen, never with a misguided thought or a bad attitude? I've shared my bad attitudes on the basketball court with this congregation before. I know I've had those as a teenager.

What happens is often we expect too much of others and not enough of ourselves. I think that's what really it comes down to a lot. We expect too much of others, but it's hard to look at yourself in the mirror sometimes. And maybe that same expectation that you have on someone else, you don't look at yourself through that same lens.

But instead, we must strive within ourselves to see people for who they are, which are children of God, and not just see them as people with sins in their lives. We must work to love each person here as God loves them. That's a tall order, isn't it? To really love people as God loves each one of us.

But when we do view others through that lens of love, then we can overcome any disillusionment that we may have of being part of that perfect church that ends up not being perfect.

To combat disillusionment, we must not put our full faith or full trust in man, but rather place our absolute faith and trust in God.

If we put any man or woman too high on a pedestal, which I've done at times in my life, especially growing up in the church, for those of you who've grown up in the church, I know you've probably done that because I did it. You put your pastor, you put somebody's parents, you put other people high on this pedestal, but what happens is each of us fall off that pedestal from time to time because we're not perfect. And at that time, there's a danger of becoming disillusioned with others because everyone has their faults and flaws and everyone falls off that pedestal. A good illustration of this is with King David and the ups and downs that we have recorded in his life. We don't have enough time to go through all the ups and downs in Scripture, but I'll recap some of them with you. Imagine if King David was part of our congregation. We saw him grow up here, and then we saw him go on to lead a life of King of Israel. One of our own. Imagine that because it did happen for a group of people who were made up of Israelites. Here's what we would have seen had David grown up and left and then went on to be king. We would have saw him anointed as king. We would have been pretty proud, pretty excited for him. We would have heard the account when he killed Goliath, and then we would have said it would have been an amazing thing to see what faith and courage that he had in God. We would have heard how he had to flee from King Saul, and we probably would have prayed for him. We would have known it would have been a challenging time for him. We would have then, though, seen him crowned King over Judah, and then later crowned King over all of Israel. There he goes. There's that boy that we knew from our area. Now he's thriving. He's shooting for the sky. He's achieving it. We would have seen God make a special covenant with him, and Israel would have had peace. We would be part of that peaceful process, having King David as our king.

But then we would have witnessed and heard the stories and the accounts of him committing adultery and murder. That would have been a low point of our interactions with our hometown boy. We would have been excited, though, because his son, later Solomon, was born. But then we would have been struggling as a nation because his son Absalon rebelled against him and is now taking hold of the kingdom. But then we would have saw David as restored as king. Our hopes would have been, again, lifted up. Kind of a roller coaster ride, isn't it, as we go through this timeline? But then we would have seen David sin and taking the census of Israel, which God commanded him not to do. We might have suffered the consequences of our hometown boy making some decisions. But then we would have seen David acquire wealth, and we would have seen his involvement in the planning for the tabernacle that his son was going to build. We would have seen God's prosperity. We would have seen God's hand involved. There's a psalm in Psalm 63 that I'd like to look at next. Because hearing David's story, we could have become disillusioned with King David.

I think there's some in Israel that may have felt that way. Because maybe they knew him personally. Maybe they were disappointed with some of his decisions. Maybe they just heard. A lot of people didn't know him from anyone else. What would they have thought? What would you have thought? If this was your king and you hear of some of these things going on, would you have felt like you were the nation, God's people, the nation of his blessing?

In one of these times of low, when David was most likely written, we have to say that. We're not 100% sure. But most likely, when David was seeking refuge during Absalom's rebellion, we have this account in Psalm 63 recorded, we believe. He was hiding from his enemies. He was probably very lonely and trying to understand what God desired for his life. He knew that only God could provide for his path out of the situation, and only God could give the direction he needed to go. And so, I believe that this Psalm, I think it fits, was probably while he was running from his son, who was trying to grab control of the full nation. And here in Psalm 63, verse 1, listen to what David recorded. In Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah, he said, Imagine David struggling to find guidance on the way to the We do have recorded the highs and the lows of David's life. Some of his troubles were his own doing, but others were of other people's problems which impacted his life. But we see through the ups and the downs David's mindset and faith in God remain constant, recognizing he wasn't perfect and he took responsibility for his own sins and problems. For you and me today, we must always remember that God has called us to his church. That's not anything that we're debating or questioning today. And while God is working with us, we are still flawed humans with a nature that often follows its own path. God is working with each one of us. He has a plan that involves each person here. We must remember that we ourselves aren't perfect. And keeping this mindset can help us all to avoid becoming disillusioned with others and within the church. What about the other deep-rooted pitfall I mentioned in the beginning? Let's examine the pitfall of dissatisfaction we must be careful to avoid.

I believe both of these problems can become deep-rooted issues, kind of like that root of bitterness that we see described that takes hold. You can chop it off, but that root hangs on there and it grows new branches, springs back up from the ground, and you've still got the problem. Even though you cut it off once, you cut it off twice, I believe when we don't cut things off, we don't get to the root of why we're succumbing to Satan's attacks.

That disillusionment can take hold and remain a root. Dissatisfaction is similar. The definition for dissatisfaction is the state or attitude of not being satisfied. It's pretty straightforward. It can also be described as a particular cause or feeling of displeasure or disappointment.

That feeling of displeasure or disappointment in a synonym, which I'll use throughout here, is discontent or discontentment. You become discontented with your life. You become discontented with the church. This is another thing that can grab and take hold. From the Life Application Study Bible, dissatisfaction comes when our attention shifts from what we have, often to what we don't have.

We each become dissatisfied with certain things in life. We don't have what we want, so we're dissatisfied. We have sins that we're struggling with, so we're dissatisfied with our own life. The church socials aren't what I enjoy, so I'm dissatisfied. The service projects that we are doing, we shouldn't be doing. I think we should be doing other things, so I'm dissatisfied.

The messages I hear in the Sabbath aren't what I expect them to be, so I'm dissatisfied. Becoming dissatisfied or discontent happens to all of us at times. We're none of us. Let me say that again. None of us are immune to this. Maybe we want to feel better from a health trial that we're having, but we haven't been freed from that yet. Maybe our finances are hurting and dragging us down. Or maybe my job has been a real drag lately, and I'm not enjoying it one bit, and I'm actually dreading getting up every day. Dissatisfaction happens to each and every one. When we begin to feel dissatisfaction or discontent settling into our lives, we need to ask ourselves a question and to evaluate what is it that is making us feel dissatisfied about this situation? Often, we find ourselves too far down the path to really...we're never too far down that path, but often when we ask this question, it's because we're way down that road, where if we recognize that we're starting to feel this way, it's starting to creep in, we can ask this early on in the process and circumvent dissatisfaction of grabbing a root, becoming a root that grabs us and hangs on. So what is it that's making us feel dissatisfied about a situation? We must seek to look past the discontent and really evaluate why we're feeling this way.

Often in life, we end up chasing things that we think will bring us happiness, but when we're chasing things, whether they're physical or emotion or spiritual things, expecting that they will bring us a fullness of happiness, we will never be happy. We will always be dissatisfied and discontent. God knows that the things of this earth will never bring us happiness in the long term.

God is the only one who can supply all of our needs.

Therefore, true contentment can only be found in Him. It's when we put our relationship with God above the physical things, or the things that we desire in this life, that we can find true contentment and real satisfaction. There's a scripture that talks about this in 1 Timothy 6.

1 Timothy 6 and verse 6.

1 Timothy 6 and verse 6. Now, godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. But having food and clothing with these we shall be content. He's saying here that important things of life will bring us contentment. The things that God can provide, the things that are necessary, because I read this and I can't help but think about that joke. You never see a hearse pulling a U-Haul trailer, do you? You can't take the things in life with you when we die. They're physical things. They stay here, whether it be money, possessions, or that amazing garden that you poured your heart and soul into for so many years. None of that stays with you when we leave this life. There are things we need in our life because we do live a physical life. But none of it will provide anything for us, and none of it can be taken with us when we die. There's an account we have recorded by Moses in Numbers 11 about dissatisfaction and discontent. Let's start looking there in Numbers 11. This is something the Israelites battled. Just prior to what we'll read here in chapter 11, the Israelites had just spent under one year camped at Mount Sinai. So about one year. It's a pretty long time to spend in one place and to become building a foothold for yourself. Maybe they were enjoying it. And now, though, they've gathered all their things together and now again on the move in the wilderness following where God will lead them. So that is where we're picking up the story here in Numbers 11 and verse 1. Now when the people complained, it displeased the Lord, for the Lord heard it and his anger was aroused. So the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp. Pause for a moment because we're not told why the people started complaining. Maybe some felt they shouldn't have left. This is not too bad of a place. Maybe we should stay here. Maybe they were even getting settled in. They were becoming comfortable. These most likely would have even been secret complaints because we're not told Moses was even aware. But God was aware.

Matthew Henry's commentary says this at the beginning of this passage. It says, Others thought it was not long enough because it did not bring them into Canaan. When we consider how their camp was guided, guarded, and graced, what good victuals they had and good company and what care was taken of them in their marches that their feet should not swell nor their clothes wear. Matthew Henry continues, says, We may ask, what could have been done more for people to make them easy? And yet they complained. And then he says, Note that they are of a fretful, discontented spirit. Okay, excuse me. He put this note. Those that are of a fretful, discontented spirit will always find something or other to quarrel with, though the circumstances of their outward condition be ever so favorable.

That was the end of Matthew Henry's commentary on this passage. I thought it was interesting. But what we do see in this passage in verse 1, that God becomes angry with the complainers, and it costs some of them their lives. God determined that there was no cause for their dissatisfaction or discontent. Going on to Numbers 11, verse 2, Then the people cried out to Moses, and when Moses prayed to the Lord, the fire was quenched. So he called the name of this place Tabara, because the fire of the Lord had burned among them. Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving, so the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic, but now our whole being has dried up. There is nothing at all except for this manna before our eyes. Again, Israel became discontent, and dissatisfaction arose among the mixed multitudes within the Israelites. And we get a description of what was this manna, this gift of food from God, this blessing that they had received. But I ask us and myself today to consider where would I have been if I was with the Israelites at this time. I think many times over the years of being in the church, we've given a bad rep to the Israelites, saying, I can't believe those complainers can't believe how they whine so often, or how they didn't remember those miracles that God performed. But my mother, through many of her years of being in the church, has told me before, she thinks we have a lot more Israelite in us than we give credit to. And I think she's right in a lot of ways. I try to put myself, if I grew up as an Israelite in Egypt, if I grew up under the bondage of Pharaoh, and then God came and He said, you're my people, come with me, and I didn't know anything about God, what would I have done? Would I have been a complainer, a murmuror? Would my faith have been rock solid? Most likely we all would have succumbed to the pressures and the confusion, the lack of understanding. We would have all probably been numbered right here with the rest of the Israelites. It's just how life often goes. Because in verse 7, we see how the manna was described. Now the manna was like coriander seed, and it's colored like the color of delium. The people went about it and gathered it, ground it on millstones, or beat it in the mortar, cooked it in pans, and made cakes of it. And its taste was like the taste of pastry prepared with oil. Sounds like a donut to me. I like donuts. And when the dew fell on the camp, in the night, the manna fell on it. This great and wonderful blessing that God Himself had provided. What was the people's reaction?

The manna appeared at night while they slept. They did not have to work for it. They did enjoy it, but later despised it. It could have been prepared in multiple ways, yet not enough ways to satisfy their willingness not to complain. And they could not be satisfied unless they had meat to eat. But it wasn't only the Israelites and mixed multitude that became dissatisfied in this account. With the stress, weight, and complaints, Moses himself also struggled. Let's continue reading. Just one verse later, this is the same passage, Numbers 11, verse 10. Then Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families. Everyone at the door of his tent. And the anger of the Lord was greatly aroused. Moses also was displeased. So Moses said to the Lord, Why have you afflicted your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight that you have laid the burdens of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I beget them that you should say to me, Carry them in your bosom as a guardian carries a nursing child to the land which you swore to their fathers? Where am I to get meat to give all these people? For they weep all over me, saying, Give us meat that we may eat. I am not able to bear all these people alone because the burden is too heavy for me. If you treat me like this, please kill me here and now. If I have found favor in your sight, do not let me see my wretchedness. What a passage that we have here from Moses himself. This passage to me shows that even the most aged among us, those that may be the most converted within our congregation, are not immune to becoming discontent and dissatisfied at times. Just one chapter forward in chapter 12, you can look at it yourself, Numbers 12 and verse 3, we have Moses described as a very humble, I'll just read it, it says, Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth. That's powerful. Yet one chapter prior, he was extremely discontent, dissatisfied. Again, with the examples that we have before us, we see that none of us are immune to the challenge of dissatisfaction and discontentment. Dissatisfaction can turn the most positive thinking and behaving person into a truly negative one if they give in to it. So how do we battle dissatisfaction and discontentment? From the Life Application Study Bible, they had this to say, It's helpful to think about what occupies our attention most of the time. Are we grateful for what God has given us? Or are we always thinking about what we would like to have? We should not allow our unfulfilled desires to cause us to forget God's gift of life, food, health, work, and friends.

Again, that's from the Life Application Study Bible. We become dissatisfied when our priorities do not match God's priorities for our life. How often do we think about and focus on the things that we don't have versus the things that we do have? This is a common problem among many. But again, we have a Psalm of David which gives us insight to David's thoughts. Let's look at Psalm 131, verse 1. Psalm 131, verse 1. Psalm 131, verse 2. Psalm 131, verse 2.

We've all seen the crying baby super hungry, needing mom's attention. But we've also seen that ween chow that becomes content with solid food and able to start to talk and start to feed themselves. He's saying, sure the way I've calmed and quieted my soul. He's saying, I've found my peace with where I am in life. I've found my peace for what you, God, want. And he says in verse 3, O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forever.

Sometimes our heart does become prideful in thinking we deserve things that we don't have in life. But when we prioritize the important things of life and we work to keep them prioritized correctly, we can have peace deep within ourselves. Verse 1 here speaks of the humility that David was describing and the changing of perspective from earthly things to things of God. David was able to be satisfied and content, again, with what God supplied for his emotional, his spiritual, and his physical needs. He was able to achieve this by keeping his hope in the Lord. And what can we turn our attention to when we're feeling discontented or dissatisfied with things? Let's look at Philippians 4 in verse 8. It's a passage that we're going to read that could be a series of sermons in itself. Philippians 4 in verse 8. What should our thoughts be? Where should our minds go? Philippians 4, verse 8. The Apostle Paul says, Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of a good report, if there's any virtue and if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. When we're feeling discontented, dissatisfied, if we can find it within ourselves to recognize that we're thinking and feeling this way, and then redirect to Philippians 4, verse 8, it'll change our lives. This nation does have its fair share of problems, things that we can even become dissatisfied with, and our congregation is made up of people that we too have our challenges, and it can be easy to become discontent. Do we sometimes get caught looking past all of the things we do have, and then desire and wish for the things that appear to be missing in our life, or missing in our church? We're not satisfied. We desire more. We're not content. Something is missing. The Israelites took their eye off the end goal, which was the promise land that God had prepared for them and was ready to give them.

They distrusted the goodness of God, and they said that He was insufficient to supply for their needs. Remember, He said, who will give us flesh to eat, they asked. Do we take our eye off the end goal in front of us at times, which is the kingdom of God? Do we become dissatisfied in the things missing and forget that everything we are doing, everything that we are working towards today, should be to prepare us for the future eternity of our lives with God?

If something is truly missing from your life, go and ask God and pray about it. Instead of becoming dissatisfied, ask God if there is something that you need to have in your life, and if it is something that you are missing within the church, within our congregation, go and ask God for that as well. See if He will provide for your church-related needs as well.

If we believe that Christ is in charge of the church, then we have to go to God, asking for Christ to lead us where He wants us to go, not where we think we need to be or where we need to go. And then, the hard part, be still and to see what God's answer is. Because often we do think that this is what we need. We know what we need. We know what's best for us.

And this is where that idea, this concept of becoming dissatisfied, discontent, because we don't have it. But if we are still, we ask of God, and He either gives it to us or He doesn't, that in and of itself is an answer from Him. We can become disillusioned and dissatisfied with all sorts of things if we allow ourselves to. We often see people struggle with disillusionment and dissatisfaction all around us.

Those who are disillusioned and dissatisfied can do a great amount of harm to a congregation. As it was during Moses' time with the Israelites in the wilderness, we know that it wasn't everyone who complained, was it? Was it all of Israel that complained? No, but it was enough that it became a problem for those that God was leading. A few voices can really ruin the peace and harmony we have in our congregation. So we must ask ourselves if our voice and the words we are saying stem from a mindset of disillusionment and dissatisfaction with something that we feel is missing from our life and from our congregation. We can become disillusioned and dissatisfied with others that we call brothers and sisters in the faith.

Or those who serve within our congregations, the ordained leadership in our congregations or in our neighboring congregations. We can become disillusioned or dissatisfied with the administration within the United Church of God. And if we're not careful, we can even become disillusioned or dissatisfied with God.

Again, Christians are not immune from the thoughts and feelings of disillusionment and dissatisfaction. But it's what we can do with these thoughts that when they enter our mind is what counts. We can battle and overcome these thoughts by taking our eyes off the things we feel are causing these problems and cast our gaze and our heart towards God's and the thoughts and the desires that He has for each one of us.

Let's consider one last scripture in Galatians 2 and verse 20. Just a few books back. Galatians 2 and verse 20.

Because this is the mindset that we each have to get ourselves to, which is recorded here again by the Apostle Paul.

Galatians 2 and verse 20.

Powerful passage we have here. When we feel disillusioned, when we feel dissatisfied with life, consider that we have been crucified with Christ.

And that's no longer you or me who's living, but Christ living inside of us.

Let us live our lives with Christ living inside us. If we do this, the direction we go in our lives and the expectations that we have of the people and our congregation will be guided by the truth of God.

And with this will come a peace that surpasses understanding and a fullness of life that overflows for you and me. This is what each of us desire in our lives today. With this focus and mind of Christ, we'll void the pitfalls of disillusionment and dissatisfaction which can suffocate our lives.