We’re Starving

I ate really well on Sunday. It’s my day to rest and worship with my family, so I ate several huge, vitamin-filled meals. Someone served the food to me, too, so what’s better than that? I didn’t even have to make it for myself, so by the end of the day, I was fat and happy. Then Monday came, and even though I’m off on Mondays, I filled my day with a MILLION things I needed to do for the week. The hunger pangs started toward the end of the day, so I ate a little snack to get me by, and then I kept going full speed ahead. No slowing down, y’all!  Tuesday and Wednesday were CRAZY work days, so food just wasn’t top priority. Wednesday night, after trying to worship God in choir practice with a hurting head and growling stomach, I finally drank a little milk and called it a day. Thursday rolled around and between running a  business, getting a little fitness in, and studying  schoolwork with my daughter, I just had no time to eat. My blood sugar was dangerously low, and I knew it because I was “hangrily” snapping at everyone in my path…but I was BUSY taking care of them and me, so there was no time for sustenance. Gotta focus on what’s important. I just drank a Route 44 ice water and pressed on. Friday came(It’s a blur. I never even saw the sun that day!) and rolled on to Saturday, and by this time, I was so hungry, I was starting to hallucinate. I was seeing things that weren’t there and missing things that were. I was trying to fill the need for food with a million other things, but my body NEEDED good food.  When I was almost dead, Sunday came. So, I ate. I ate not to enjoy the food, (because by this time, it kind of hurt to eat) but because I wanted the food to come through for me and get me back on track. I really just wanted the food because the food could do something for me. 

Crazy, right? Now, let’s be real. I have NEVER eaten this way in my entire life. I’m not about to skip a meal! But I HAVE read the Word this way. For years, in my early Christian walk, I would alternately run to and from the Word of God, depending on what I felt like I needed at the time. At best, I was lazy in my discipline of reading and at worst, dangerously close to being blasphemously self-serving. I was walking around confused, disoriented, and blown around by every wind and doctrine. I was starving. Jesus fought Satan in Matthew by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3. “But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4 ESV) Ok. So if Jesus Himself fought Satan with the sword of the Word, it must be a pretty powerful weapon, yes? Why was it still sitting on my shelf? 

I was hungry to KNOW God. And I came to the realization that He wanted me to know Him. Your God, Who desires to be known by you. What a concept! Could it be that the Word was really about Hero worship, and the hero wasn’t me?!  In a desperate plea to the Lord, I remembered James 1:5-6. So I just flipped to that Scripture and read it as a prayer. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.”

(James 1:5-6 ESV)

That’s all I knew to do. I asked the Spirit to teach me. I didn’t need any more of my own “wisdom.” I needed the inspired, infallible Word of God. And slowly, God began to answer that prayer. Suddenly, the Word became my True North, the food I couldn’t live without…“Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts.”

(Jeremiah 15:16 ESV)

God could (and has every right to) demand full allegiance with NO proof of His nature. He could remain a complete mystery, and still He would be every bit God. But, in His great grace and mercy, He provides for us a way to intimately know Him, to walk victorious lives on earth while serving Him, and to encourage us that the very best is yet to come. “…for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”

(1 Timothy 4:8 ESV)

So, let’s quit demanding to be fed like children. Let’s get off the milk and move on to the meat. Let’s pull up a chair and dig into the absolute feast that is the Word, instead of eating crumbs left behind by someone else. We wouldn’t deny our bodies the good food it needs to live, so why are we allowing our souls to be depleted to starvation? 

Let’s be a people of God who are no longer starving!