All In One Place

I

 was fortunate to grow up in a small North Carolina town.  It wasn’t exactly Mayberry, few towns are, but it did provide a nice environment in which to grow up and learn about life.  One of my favorite things to do was to go downtown.  Most of the activity in our community centered around the small stores and shops located on Main Street.  Here, you could find just about anything and everything you wanted. 

There were two drugstores, two men’s shops, two ladies’ shops, a dime store, a movie theater, a hotel, a small family-owned grocery store, three barber shops, a bank, a savings and loan association, a hardware store, a general mercantile, and two department stores.  You could spend all day downtown, browsing through the shops, pausing to talk to the store owners as well as the people on the street.  Everyone knew everyone else and there was always something to talk about and news to catch up on.

Usually, I would accompany one of my parents on these little jaunts downtown.  My mom would go to the grocery store or to one of the clothing stores to get something she needed.  My dad usually went to the hardware store, the general mercantile, or one of the men’s shops to find what he wanted.  I never gave much thought to the fact that we visited different stores for different things.  It just seemed to be the way things were done.  If my dad needed nails or screws, we went to the hardware. If my mom needed bread and milk, we went to the corner grocery.  And if we needed clothes, we went to one of the several shops downtown.

However, when I turned sixteen and was able to chauffeur myself around, I began to notice a difference in the way people shopped.  In the towns to the west and east of us, several large department stores had been built.  It was possible to go to these stores and purchase a number of different items under one roof.  The stores offered everything from house paint to shoestrings, from ink pens to motor oil, and cassette tapes to chewing gum.  In time, these large stores gave way to the super, mega stores we are accustomed to today where you can have your prescriptions filled while you wait to have new tires placed on your car.

In a way, our spiritual lives resemble my hometown during my childhood. We are constantly looking for answers to all of life’s questions.  We visit one place to find answers about life’s trials and challenges, we look in certain books to discover our “inner child”, we turn to various spas and exercise establishments to “feel good” about ourselves, and we chase after anyone who can teach us how to “take control” of our destinies.  However, all this running around trying to find satisfaction only leaves us unfulfilled and more confused and frustrated.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could find what we really needed and wanted in one place?  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could locate everything under one roof without having to run all over creation looking for an answer?

Well, there is such a place and the Apostle Paul knew just where to find it.  In his letter to the Philippians, he makes the following promise to his readers: “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19) Notice that Paul does not encourage the Philippians to seek the answers to their questions in various places.  He never tells them to explore a certain new idea, or to run after such and such a promise.  Instead, Paul states very plainly that the answer to all of life’s questions is found in one person, Jesus Christ.

Not only does Jesus hold the answers to all of life’s most pressing questions, he is also the source that supplies all our needs.  Notice Paul’s words in this verse.  God meets all our needs—not some, but all—according to his riches in Jesus Christ.  You want to talk about finding everything under one roof, here it is.  No matter what your need, physical, emotional, financial, social, spiritual, relational, marital, etc., Jesus Christ stocks everything necessary to address and fulfill all of them.  There is no need too small or great that he cannot completely satisfy.  He has everything we need all in one place.  Won’t you pay him a visit today?