More???

If you get all you want, will you want all you get? Let’s trace this thought through the life of a king named Midas—one who wished for more without asking why.

Midas was a man of immense wealth, living in greater affluence than anyone else in his time.

He spent many hours each day handling and counting his treasures. However, no matter how much gold Midas collected, he always wanted more.

One day, a being dressed in white appeared to Midas and asked what he wished for.

The king instantly wished for “the golden touch”, that everything he touched would turn to gold.

True to his request, the next morning, when Midas woke up, he found that his plain linen bedcovers had been transformed into finely spun gold!

He gasped with astonishment at seeing his wish granted so easily. Jumping out of bed, he touched the bedpost, and it too turned to gold.

“It’s true!” he cried in great admiration. “I have the golden touch!”

He rushed through the palace, brushing against the walls and furniture, even touching roses and flowers in the garden, smiling as he watched them all turn to gold.

Exhausted from the excitement of turning everything to gold, Midas sat down to read while waiting for his meal.

But the book he picked up instantly turned to gold! As he pondered this, his meal was served.

Yet when he tried to eat, a spoonful of porridge or a piece of bread, each one turned into a hard lump of gold.

Even the water in his cup became fine gold! The king grew alarmed. “If even my food turns to gold, how will I ever eat again?” he worried.

Just then, Midas’s only daughter, happy, lovely, and dearly loved by her father, ran to him, threw her arms around him, and kissed him.

Much to the king’s horror, she suddenly grew still and turned from a living, laughing little girl into a golden statue.

The king howled in anguish, overcome by the horror of what was happening before his very eyes.

He had gotten what he asked for, but suddenly realized he didn’t want what he was getting.

The being dressed in white appeared again and asked, “Well, King Midas! Are you not the happiest of men?”

“Oh no!” moaned the king. “I am the most miserable of all creatures!”

“What? Did I not grant your wish for the golden touch?” “You did,” Midas wept, “but it has become a curse to me now.

All that I truly loved is lost to me.” “Do you mean to say you would prefer a crust of bread or a cup of water to the gift of the golden touch?”

“Oh yes!” cried Midas. “I would give up all the gold in the world if only my daughter were restored to me!”

Like Midas, we are all searching for something to fill the void.

For King Solomon, he thought that one more beautiful woman, perhaps from another nation other than Isreal, would bring him the satisfaction his soul longed for.

But when he got her, he found his heart still empty.

So he pursued another, and then another, and yet another, until he ended up with 300 wives and 700 concubines.

Like Midas, Solomon got all he wanted, but did he want all he got? Solomon said, “…Behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.” Ecclesiastes 1:14.

Midas searched for the golden touch, King Solomon for more women, and us—perhaps in search of “one more click?”

But the more we click, the deeper we fall into habits that enslave us. Still, we are not satisfied.

Then we slip into moments of sensual and secret satisfaction: one more image, one more video, one more act, one more thing.

And yet, instead of satisfaction, we find addiction and emptiness. We grasp and cling tightly, hoping it will somehow satisfy, but it never does.

We tell ourselves that just one more look, one more indulgence, one more breaking of our own word will be enough.

But when it ends, it feels like it ended too soon, before we had time to be satisfied. So we reach again. We compromise our integrity.

We repeat the same mistakes. All just to hold on a little longer.

And like Solomon, we find ourselves caught in a cycle, searching, grasping, repeating, only to discover that the void remains.

The very things that promised relief become chains that bind.

If you neglect Jesus and get all you want, will you want all you get? All that I want, and all that you want, is in Jesus?

He satisfies. Joy, He supplies. Life would be worthless without Him. All things in Jesus, I find!

Reflection Questions:

What are the “one more” things you’ve chased, and did they satisfy? What would it look like, in your daily life, to truly live as if all you want is in Jesus?