Spending on What Does Not Satisfy

Scripture: Why spend money on what is not food? Why work for what does not satisfy you? Isaiah 55:2

Observation: In a beautiful description of salvation, God invites His people to come to him, to come and drink of Him without cost. If we will listen and come to God, we will eat what is good and enjoy the richest food there is. In verse 2, God asks a great question: Since you can have what will satisfy you for free, why do you spend money on that which does not satisfy? In other words, why buy dissatisfaction when God offers satisfaction for free?

Application: Yet how often do I spend my money on that which does not satisfy? I know Jesus Christ will satisfy me. And I can have him for free. Yet I am enticed by all sorts of food that costs me time and effort, yet does not fill me up. Take my devotional time, for example. I always leave this SOAP time with You satisfied and full. Yet so often, it gets bumped in favor of reading emails or the news.
I was reading an article by Matt Chandler which posed two great questions:
1. What stirs your affections for Jesus Christ?
2. What robs your affections for Jesus Christ?
These are two great questions with which I need to wrestle as I look at the things I spend my money on and work for in life. Are these things that stir or rob my affection for Jesus? Some things might in and of themselves not be bad. But if they contribute to robbing my appetite for Jesus, if they fill me up, then they are like filling up on bread before the steak dinner arrives.

Prayer: God, today, let me see where I spend my money and effort. And help me honestly look at them and judge if they stir or rob my affections for You. If they stir, let those flourish. If they rob, let them wither.