“Friendships are a history of shared meals”.
I will be honest and admit that I have no idea who this quote belongs to, but I absolutely love it. I see this painted on the wall of a local business that my wife and I frequently have coffee and breakfast at. I love the picture that it paints of community and relationship. I am a pretty big fan of good food, and will normally spend the extra money to eat food that is of higher quality. Living in Portland, there are so many different options, from food carts to steak houses. It is interesting to think about how we approach spending time with people. If you happen to run across an old friend and want to catch up on life, chances are you will either grab coffee or food. It’s just a part of our culture, as well as many other cultures around the world. I promise you that this blog post will have more substance to it than simply creating hungry readers.
If you do a google search on how many scripture passages make reference to us hungering and thirsting for God, it's astounding. I like the imagery that writers use when expressing a desire to be with God, one of hunger and thirst. Food and water make up a very large portion of what it takes for a person to be healthy, and ultimately a living being. It is essential to life that we feed ourselves. God’s word is no different. The message is very clear that we need to be spiritually feeding ourselves in order to live a healthy life, devoted and obedient to God.
A while back, I was having a conversation with a close friend about creating a hunger for God’s word. When we thinking about our physical bodies, the longer we go without food or water, the more we long for it. Taken to the extreme case, there are those who go to any lengths (think Man vs. Wild) to find food and water, recognizing that their survival depends on it. It is very interesting to contrast physical and spiritual hunger. Again, the longer you go without food, the more you realize you need it. Spiritually speaking, it can be the opposite effect. Hunger for God’s word is not normally amplified the longer that we wait to feed ourselves. The longer that one goes without strengthening relationship with God, the harder it is to redevelop that hunger to be with Him, and in His word.
I have learned from my own experience that when I am in a forward moving relationship with God, spending time with him in prayer and worship, I experience blessing, breakthrough and freedom in my life. These are pretty good motivators for me to stay spiritually hungry for God and for the work that he is doing in my life. When I find myself in a relationally dry season and am no longer hearing the voice of God or moving forward in that relationship, it can be extremely difficult to get to that place of hunger and thirst for Him. I believe that God can use these times of dryness or brokenness to draw us back into his presence, reestablishing that hunger for Him and His word. It can be difficult to recognize that at times, but God has the pretty incredible ability to use where we are at in life to navigate us back to him.
There are three questions that we need to ask ourselves.
- Am I hungry for God? Being a Type 1 Diabetic, food is a very crucial part of my body being able to function in a healthy way. Not navigating this properly can have some pretty serious consequences for my health. I have the tendency to get very hyper focused when working on a project. There have been many times where my wife has called to check on me, and will ask if I remembered to eat today. Unfortunately, there have been too many times where my answer is “no, totally forgot.” It can be very easy for us to get into the swing of life and forget to feed ourselves spiritually. We need to be able to recognize when we are not hungry for God’s word.
- How do I get back to that place of hungering for God? To be very transparent, there have been times where I have not “felt” like worshiping God. Psalms is full of writings about feeling downcast and alone, but with the promise that God is still there through the trials. There are times where we simply must power through and make the choice to seek God, even in the times where we don't feel like doing so. When we choose to be disciplined in spending time with God, we begin to allow that hunger for him increase.
- How do I maintain a hunger for God? Again, part of my body staying healthy is maintaining good blood sugar levels. If my body needs food, I am not going to wait to eat until tomorrow because I don't have the time or energy to eat a large, well prepared meal. I recognize that if I don't eat in the moment of feeling weak, even if it is a simple snack, my body will begin to shut down. There is not a rule that states that our time spent with God must be outlined, or follow a specific journal format. If we decide to wait to spend time with God until we can prepare a feast, we will end up going hungry for too long, causing our spiritual health to weaken. I would much prefer to eat a feast every time I’m hungry, but that's just not realistic. We can't allow ourselves to go that long without being fed spiritually, not without the risk of becoming weak.
I continue to pray that as a church we are moving forward in relationship with God. I pray that we be a people who make the choice to worship our King, even when it doesn't feel like the natural or easy thing to do in the moment. We want to be a church that has a constant hunger and thirst for God, allowing our hearts and souls to be fed more than just 70 minutes a week during a weekend church service. I am thankful for a God that pulls us back into his arms when we are spiritually starving, and does so without any shame or guilt attached. Let's be a people who always hunger and thirst for our God, recognizing the life-giving love that we have been given.
Thanks for reading,
Ryan
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