Deuteronomy 8:3 “He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
Hunger, or maybe more importantly appetite, is a powerful motivator. The average American family of four spends more than $190/week at the grocery store, and more than $40/week at restaurants and eateries. This adds up to approximately $880/month just on food. The appetite of the body guides our money, our schedule, our recreation, and most often our priorities.
As much as our body and its needs governs much of our existence, our spirit has no less of an appetite. There is a deep need within you for the movement of God; an often dormant, but no less powerful, desire to drink deep from the waters of the richness of the goodness of God. Unfortunately, we consistently feed the inner appetite with the wrong things and wonder why we never feel satisfied. We feel the hunger pangs of the spirit and say, “I’m just tired” or “I’m overworked, that’s why I feel this way”. We then attempt to cure our hunger with things that only satisfy the outer man, not the inner man, and we wonder why our idleness or “rest” has not produced the fruit of rest, which is contentment, vigor, and purposeful living. This kind of appetite can only be satisfied in communing with the Holy Spirit. God has gifted each of us with an inner longing, an innate desire for the things of God and the mysteries of the Kingdom, but unless we recognize that our need is far beyond a good nap (and I’m a huge fan of good naps), we’ll never experience all that God has prepared for us in Christ Jesus.
God, in taking the sons of Jacob into the wilderness, was developing in them a deeper need for a better master; to learn that there is more to life than living and dying, eating and drinking, there is the Presence of God and the fulfillment of the whole man. God takes the believer on a similar journey. David spoke of it in Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd (guide, master, keeper) I shall want for nothing. He make me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters (His leading draws me into peace). He restores my soul.” (Emphasis/parentheses added)
God has provided natural things to fulfill the natural man and spiritual things to restore the spirit man. As we embark on a new year, I encourage you to enjoy life! Enjoy the beauty and wonder of creation, the glory of the Father revealed in all things, but do not neglect the gift of hunger that has been given you in the spirit!
I’ll leave you with this excerpt from A.W. Tozer’s classic The Pursuit of God:
To have found God and still to pursue him is the soul’s paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too-easily-satisfied religionist, but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart. St. Bernard stated this holy paradox in a musical quatrain that will be instantly understood by every worshipping soul:
We taste thee, O Thou Living Bread
And long to feast upon thee still:
We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead
And thirst our souls from Thee to fill
May God bless you, keep you, cause His face to shine upon you and give you Peace,
Joel Ecklund Generations Pastor