SATIATED

satisfied (as a need or desire) fully or to excess

RUTH 2:8-17

There's a scene in the book of Ruth where Boaz calls Ruth over to join him for lunch. They've met not long before this as she gleaned in his fields and he shares his meal with her. Boaz gives Ruth a portion of what he is eating. Most importantly, Boaz gives Ruth enough food that she ate until she was "satisfied" and had some left over. One definition for the Hebrew word used here (saba) is satiate. I prefer satiate to satisfy because of the fullness and excess implicit and explicit in the word satiate.


This made me think about where in life I am satisfied and where I am satiated. Am I spiritually satisfied or satiated? Am I settling for just enough or filling my soul to excess with God's goodness, mercy and love? Even more convicting, am I satisfying myself with earthly fare or holding out for the truly good stuff? It's hard to deny the satisfaction I get from reading a well-written novel, but that should not be what satiates my soul.


If I'm satiated with the things of God, what am I doing with the excess? What Ruth does with her excess is share it. So I think I'm called to not only seek my satisfaction and satiation from God and His Word, but to share the excess with others. What does this mean practically? That's a bit harder, but I think for a start it means remembering God's patience with me when I err over and over again and offering grace to others who injure, insult or merely annoy me. It also means forgiving whether it's sought or not, loving those who are less than lovable and setting aside my own self-interests much more often than I currently do.


But first, I need to satiate my soul. There's no denying that I currently feel calm in the midst of storms at work and that is from filling my soul with God's Word.