LUKE 24:32:  “They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”

OBSERVATION:  The next “New Thing!”  This has become the mantra of our culture.  We get a new smartphone, and it is only good for 6-9 months.  Immediately upon getting our phone they introduce the next “New Thing”.  How can we be satisfied any more with our old phone?  We need the next “New Thing”!

This mantra is a marketer’s dream.  Yet, it can become a trap for our lives financially and also spiritually.  This mentality has crept into the church.  Hundreds of people clamor for the next “New Revelation”, or rush to attend the next “New Church”.  We feel the pressure to remain on the “cutting edge” at all times.  And so we are tempted to run after the wind.  In doing so we can miss the very source of meaning and life.

Why do so many hunger for the next “New Thing”?  I believe it is because they have ceased to be amazed and captivated with Jesus.  The two disciples on the road to Emmaus did not even know that they were walking and talking with Jesus.  Yet, after Jesus revealed Himself to them they remarked – “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”  They had encountered the source of life – Jesus revealing Himself through His Word!

Paul writes of the endless quest of knowing Jesus Christ and His love – “…that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (‭Ephesians‬ ‭3‬:‭17-19‬ ESV)  Paul longs for the Ephesians (and us) to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.  This is our quest – not the next “New Thing”!

When we constantly search for the next “New Thing” we turn away from the One who never changes.  He is the same Yesterday, Today, and Forever.  There is no shadow or turning in Him.  He does not change with the times and He does not manifest Himself through “new revelations” and fads.  Jesus Christ reveals Himself through the Scriptures!  When we get bored with our faith we have ceased to sit at His feet and receive His words that burn in our hearts.  We will never complete this quest of knowing His love in this lifetime – yet, it is our calling and the only source of life!  The next “New Thing” is not a thing at all – it is a renewed love relationship with Jesus Christ realized through the revelation of Himself as we abide in the Word of God!

Lord, thank You that You never change!  Thank You for your unsearchable and unknowable love that is being revealed in my heart through the Scriptures.  Thank You that You delight to walk with me daily and reveal Your love to me as I sit at Your feet.  May I always hunger to know You and the depth of Your love.  May I never be drawn away from Your love by the next “New Thing”.  In Jesus Name!