Mirage

Imagine yourself walking on the desert.  You've been walking for days.  Your water has been exhausted and you don't know where you will find the next water because all you can see is a single-color landscape - dry sand dunes and not a sign of vegetation in sight.  You're thirsty and it is unbearably hot where you are.  Soon you begin to see signs of relief - there is a river in sight. And your hope rises once more.  You muster the remaining energy you have to run to the water only to be disappointed because it was only a mirage.

Now come back to real life.  Sometimes we are put in a situation when we are drained and thirsty for a fresh relief.  We are hungry and weak.  It is during this times when we need to harness our desires to get close to God and lean on him.  Keep your eyes open because the Lord will dangle opportunities sometimes as candies in a pinata and sometimes as honey in a beehive.  Still sometimes he dangles something really good in front of something even better.  Just like a nice warm bath in preparation for a sit-down meal. He is the source of all good gifts.  So we grab the gifts. But we need to be mindful.  A defeated-circumstance coupled with nostalgia for something we've been detached from for so long can create a distorted horizon.  Promising opportunities show up and yet we need not forget to maintain our desire for God - Him alone - as we entertain the promise of a breakthrough.  I'm not saying to disregard opportunities, by all means take it, but let not the gift become the obsession.

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”
Jeremiah 17:7-8

Keep your eyes on God because it is easy to paste His picture 

on the things our hearts crave for.