Recently, I saw on a dear friends WhatsApp status, a most thought provoking statement. It read…
I’ll give you a minute to read and digest that one more time.
Yep, it’s totally loaded. It had me thinking about my spiritual appetite. I’ll confess to you, as I did to my Source of Life, that I have not been having my fill as I should?
Let me break it down a little bit. The statement is so profound in that, as humans, Christian or non Christian, we were created to be hungering after something. To hunger and thirst after God is our natural being. When there is no hunger for the presence of God, it is an indicator that something is wrong spiritually. And if we’re not hungering after Him, then we’ve filled ourselves with other things and our cravings are satisfied, but only for a short time, and with the wrong things.
One author puts it this way, “So many Christians today snack their way through the day on “junk-food” activities and then find they have no time to “feast” with God. We complain about our “business” and tiredness, but that is typically a spiritual problem more than a problem of schedule.”
It was Jesus who invited us to His table for food. “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and ye who believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35). Why then are so many who sit at His table still hungry and are malnourished?
“We have become satisfied with mere church, mere religious exertion, mere numbers and buildings—the things we can do. There is nothing wrong with these things, but they are no more than foam left by the surf on the ocean of God’s glory and goodness.”
[Ben Patterson, Deepening Your Conversation With God, 171.]
It’s a good thing to hunger and thirst after God and His righteousness, but as my friend’s whatsapp status said, “if you’re not hungry for God, then you must be full of yourself.”
Between the dangers of self-denial and self-indulgence is this path of pleasant pain called fasting. It may be that we will need to fast from other things than food in order to restore our spiritual hunger. We may need to fast from some forms of entertainment, relationships, and worldly things in order to devote time to seeking the Lord.
Whatever you do, get your spiritual taste buds in order.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6).
Bon Appétit!
Merry Melodious Melody
Amen
Yes indeed, I’m in agreement with everything you’ve said. I pray that I will always hungered and thirsty for righteousness sake . I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and there will be no room left for self.Self can be very destructive.
It is a good thing to hunger and thirst after righteousness as the Psalmist David says in Psa 63 : 1
My God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is
Lord help me that I will hunger and thirst for your righteousness so I can be filled.
May God help us all.