“As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalm 42:1-2).

I read the following statement some time ago. I thought about it. “God may well be taken as a substitute for everything; but nothing can be taken as a substitute for God.”

That’s true. It took me a bit to see the truth in it, but finally the light came on.

With God there is always hope for the faithful. There is always prospect and assurance and peace. There is confidence that, at last, all will be well… more than well… perfect. We can suffer the loss of anything, even life itself, and still have this assurance. As long as we have God, then ultimately all will become as it ought to be because God is more powerful than death. That is why nothing can be a substitute for God. Nothing else does that.

But, on the other hand, without God we are destined to lose everything worthwhile and there is no hope of even a glimmer of good. This is why we ought not spend our lives chasing after futile things and neglect God. Nothing can take the place of God. Not really. We can put other things in God’s place, but they will fail to do what God does. Nothing can take His place in our lives.

The Lord told His people, “You must not turn aside, for then you would go after futile things which cannot profit or deliver, because they are futile” (1 Samuel 12:21).

Jesus once asked His apostles if they were giving up and going away. The answer came back, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life” (John 6:68).

Jesus identifies Himself as “The Bread of Life” because He sustains us through our deepest needs. Just as candy can spoil our appetite and cause us to pass up needed nourishment, the love of things of the world can rob us of our hunger for righteousness and leave us growing ever sicker and ultimately dying a spiritual death. Things of this creation can never do for us what God can do. There is no substitute. People need to stop looking for one.