Daily Devotional
Only Treating the Symptoms?

November 4, 2022

Ponder This

Suppose you go to the doctor with a terrible headache, fever, pain, and swelling in your arm. It seems like an infection on the inside, but all the doctor does is give you strong medicine to kill the pain and reduce the fever. If he never deals with the infection, he’s not a good doctor. I want him to kill the pain if he can, but he only really helps me if he gets at the infection, which is the real problem.

People who are trying to be happy primarily in this life are only treating the symptoms. If you’ll seek after righteousness, you’ll be dealing with the infection. Seek righteousness and then you’ll be happy. What you need is to have the deepest need of your heart and your life met. It is to worship God. It is to drink of the Spirit. It is to feed on the Word of God. That’s the deepest need of your heart, and it will only be met in Jesus.

• When have you chased after worldly happiness?
• In what ways have you experienced joy as you began to follow Jesus?

Practice This

Make a list of all the things you need or want to do in the next week. Write next to this list the quote from today’s devotional “The deepest need of your heart will be met only in Jesus.” Place this note in a place where you can see it regularly.