Appetite or Hunger?

God, my shepherd! I don’t need a thing. You have bedded me down in lush meadows, you find me quiet pools to drink from. True to your word, you let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction. (Psalm 23:1-3)

I don't need a thing - how many of us can speak those words with our heart bearing full and total agreement with them? Most of us will give lip service to the idea, but deep down inside we desire things we don't have, look for ways to acquire what we think we 'need', and are always on the search for 'more' of something, aren't we? Our desires stem from what we feed the most - it creates an appetite within us for what we desire. If you had never tasted chocolate in your lifetime, you likely don't have any type of craving for it. Indulge yourself with a couple of pieces of rich chocolate and that 'taste' will create a desire for more. Why? Appetite has more to do with our thinking than it does the need to correct an imbalance of some vital nutrient within our bodies. Hunger is purely 'biological' - we need to raise our blood glucose, so we feel the pangs of hunger to replenish that necessary resource. Appetite is actually our 'relationship' with what we take in - we form habits based upon our appetite.

What do you find 'pleasure' in these days? As I entered into retirement, I thought I would miss the hustle and bustle of a daily work life. Actually, quite the opposite is true. I have come to enjoy not making plans for my day - just rising, observing the weather, feeling the desires I may have to create something new, and then heading out to the workshop for a little 'wood fun'. I also enjoy the spontaneous text from my BFF that asks if I want to go with her to the store, explore the thrift shops, or go over to her sister's house for a bite to eat. There is something different in the 'pleasures' I experience in retirement than there were during my working years. Have my desires changed? You might think so, but those desires have always been there. I have always wanted to create with my hands - so workshop time has always been a craving. I have always desired to find a good bargain - so thrift shop trolling is a fun pastime for me. I just have the time to do these things more frequently now - not having to cram them all into one weekend!

If you feed the desires God places deep within your soul - mind, will, and emotions - you will find your desires grow (your appetite changes to desire more of those things). Feed your body fruits and veggies often enough and you will actually crave them. Feed it cookies, donuts, and salty snacks and see how those cravings begin to direct your food choices when hungry. Feed your spirit the Word of God and you will begin to understand its content. Feed your spirit with times of worship and praise and your desire to spend time with Jesus just might increase. You are what you eat - we have probably all heard that one before. If what we 'take in' the most often is what we desire the most (becoming what makes up our appetites), then it stands to reason that if we feed upon the Word, spend time worshiping at his feet, and actually begin to pour out our thoughts and desires before him, those desires just might change for the better! Just sayin!

You thirsty?

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way, just as the Scripture says.” (John 7:38)

Today, we find Jesus unfazed by the opposition of the religious leaders of the day - teaching in the Temple, as was his custom. The religious leaders are appalled at how much of the Law Jesus knows and how well he explains it. In fact, they are engaged in a heavy discussion about where he received his "credentials" to preach when Jesus responds to their curiosity with a simple statement: "I didn’t make this up. What I teach comes from the One who sent me. Anyone who wants to do his will can test this teaching and know whether it’s from God or whether I’m making it up. A person making things up tries to make himself look good. But someone trying to honor the one who sent him sticks to the facts and doesn’t tamper with reality. It was Moses, wasn’t it, who gave you God’s Law? But none of you are living it. So why are you trying to kill me?” (vs. 16-19) All this "banter" between the religious leaders and Jesus begins to get some in the crowd talking about Jesus' "origin" and his "ability" to be "in ministry" without any "formal teaching". Doesn't it just seem like the crowd always has to include some who will question the validity or motivation of anyone who is in public view?

Jesus is steadfast in his teaching - never wavering despite the continued and escalating opposition. The religious leaders are jealous of him receiving the following of the crowds - a powerful opponent to humility is the devil within we can each call pride! Yet, in all Jesus "endures" at the hand of the crowd of onlookers, there are those "in the crowd" who he knows are on the brink of hungering and thirsting for the reality of "God with them". To them, he begins to minister - "If ANYONE thirsts...." This is not likely an invitation to the religious, but to the seeking hearts who long for something more than set of rules to follow and a place to gather on "church day". Two things Jesus tells them: "Come to me" and "drink". Look at the little three-letter word which begins this invitation - "LET". Jesus is saying to the religious "righteous" - "allow, permit, grant access" to the thirsty - they need what I have to offer. It was as though he is saying to the rabble-rousers in the crowd, "Stop standing in their way and let them alone!" He recognizes the hungry within the crowd - those who desire more - not just the onlookers there because they wanted to be 'part of the group'. It is these seeking hearts he desires to touch. Jesus never sought to "convince" the religious "righteous" of his greatness - he just opened heaven to those who were willing to admit their own righteousness would never be enough to truly bring peace to their souls and right-thinking to their minds.

Come to me is the first invitation - permit these hungry among you to experience access to what it is they desire so desperately. Then he adds the instruction to allow them to drink - the place of refreshing awaited those who would draw near enough to experience the "flow" of his grace fully. Religious righteousness only makes people more "thirsty" for something that will truly satisfy - Jesus is simply offering himself. The filling-up of one's thirsty soul with the presence of Jesus is the only truly satisfying position the thirsty can find - for the rivers of grace flow freest and clearest the nearer we come to the source of the "water". Then he adds what becomes a message of hope to the thirsty within the crowd - "Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way". Dry to the bone, you will be refreshed beyond your capacity to "contain" or "hold" what is offered by the infilling of his grace! Rivers are not tiny streams that trickle along in some lazy way, following the path of the least resistance. Rivers have currents - they cut paths right through whatever stands in their way! Jesus tells us his grace has the power to cut paths where there is resistance - to overcome obstacles to refreshing and renewing.

He adds the rivers will "spill out". Ever "over-pour" a glass of soda? You know, you just did not expect it to overflow the top of the glass, pooling around the base of the glass and dribbling onto the floor. He is not talking about this kind of "fizz up" overflow here! In fact, he talks of it being a river that spills out - from the depths of one's being. Soda fizzes up and then the "overflow" dissipates, doesn't it? His "river of living water" is non-dissipating! It flows and flows and flows. Grace has no limits! Grace abounds - the more we need it, the more is spills out, but did you ever stop to consider that which spills out has to have filled the object in the first place? I don't know about you, but I want this kind of "overflow" in my life! I don't want an occasional "sprinkling" or "fizz up" of his presence, but the genuine flow of his grace constantly renewing me, cutting paths through the places of resistance in my life. How about you? Just askin!

I'm hungry again!

Jesus replied, “I am the Bread of Life. No one coming to me will ever be hungry again. Those believing in me will never thirst." (John 6:35 TLB)

What makes you hungry? As I catch the fragrant aroma of baking cookies or fresh bread, I get hungry! Walk into the putrid smell of old pine cleaner in a musty bathroom and that appetite just takes a hit in the old nostrils! It is amazing how we can be so hungry one moment and then have that hunger almost turn to a sour stomach in such a short period of time. How it is that happens? In the natural sense, hunger is made up of many 'senses' - smell, taste, texture, not to mention hormones triggering the desire to eat, etc. We can realize tremendous hunger, and then there are times we can ignore that hunger to the point it becomes a devastating thing to our physical bodies. In a spiritual sense, it is possible to ignore hunger so long we just don't realize we are becoming malnourished!

Hunger is satisfied as we partake - plain and simple. We can "sense" all the goodness awaiting us, but until we partake of what has been graciously provided for us, there is no hope our hunger will ever provide nourishment for our souls and spirits. If we want to experience provision, we have to allow it to actually work into our lives as it is intended. I can stare at food on a plate for a long, long time (and I did as a young child when those veggies didn't look all that appealing to me). It doesn't change the "provision" on the plate. The moment I take in even the tiniest portion of the provision is when I begin to experience the benefit of the provision. 

Wouldn't it be silly to have a feast specially prepared for us and then stop right after the appetizer? Or just take one bite of each portion on the plate and say we have "experienced it all"? The feast would still be a feast - our desire to be "filled" might just not be there! God looks for us to have a desire to be continually filled, but he allows us to experience a little bit of this thing known as "hunger" because hunger can be a great driving force to bring us into the place of provision! 

God has provided beyond our wildest dreams - we just need to recognize that hunger he allows to develop within us is to be met with the provision he makes! We might want to find our own provisions from time to time, but I know some of the best meals I have experienced are those others have prepared for me with great love and dedication to get it "just right" for me. If others can do this for me in the natural sense, isn't it silly that I'd think God wouldn't do it on a ten-fold or a hundred-fold grander scheme? The hunger for righteousness isn't going to be filled at any other "table", my friend. It is meant to be filled at his table. Just sayin!

I am a little hungry - how about you?

Jesus: I am the bread that gives life. If you come to My table and eat, you will never go hungry. Believe in Me, and you will never go thirsty.  (John 6:35 VOICE)

One of my favorite things in life is a good loaf of crusty French or Sourdough bread - especially if it is hot from the oven and slathered in butter! It has been almost six months since I have "indulged" in such a treat because I made a conscious decision to watch what I allowed into my body. I have not gone on any radical diet or anything - just good choices and more reasonable portions. I still like bread and even long for it on occasion - but I haven't really given into that longing because I know once I get started, I will want more! That is kind of how it is with Jesus - get one good "taste" of his grace and you just keep going back for more!

I live in the desert, so you can understand why I appreciate a good drink of cold water. Yet, I have visited more exotic places, rich with island growth, and complete with humidity in the 80's or 90's! I think I wanted a good cold drink of water more in the humid portions of this world more than I did in the desert! Why? Maybe because my body was longing for refreshing - it was worn out by the humidity since it was not used to it. It is like a load had been placed on my body which I just found it hard to bear. I am a desert girl through and through, so any other type of climate that "taxes" my body like high humidity makes it kind of hard for me to get acclimated. In much the same way, the emotional weight this world wants to put on us will wear us down - it is hard to acclimate to carrying what it is we were never intended to carry!

Jesus tells his disciples that if they come, they must eat. It is not enough to know where the water is, or where it is we will find the grace we so desperately need. We must partake of it if we are to ever enjoy the satisfaction it can provide - not just once, but over and over again. We might be in the middle of a desert, smack-dab in the humid conditions of the jungle of life, or under a whole load of guilt and shame we didn't want in the first place - but Jesus is the place of refreshing, the one who lifts the load, and the only way we find the way to real freedom out of where it is we find ourselves. We cannot long for anything "better" or more "fulfilling" than his grace and love - it is just impossible for anything else to actually replace either of these.

We may not always feel like eating or drinking, but the truth of the matter is that the human body was made to do both - without either of these, we begin to "waste". Our bodies begin to consume themselves - we deplete the storehouse of energy our body maintains. We often go a long, long time without connecting with Jesus at the table of his grace - much longer than we ever should. It may not be until we actually feel ourselves emotionally or spiritually "wasting" that we realize we haven't "eaten" in a while! When we do realize it - it is time to sit down at the table and just eat/drink it all in. Just sayin!

Emotionally Starved

Have you ever stopped to consider just how emotionally "starved" we are as a society?  In most relationships, there is such a tremendous amount of emotional "hunger" which goes totally unmet because we don't take the time to meet the need, we fail to recognize the need exists, or we just simply spend more time looking at our own need.  Starvation is simply the feeling of a strong need or desire.  When our emotional needs go unmet long enough, we begin to feel a little "starved".  Sometimes we use other means to satisfy a genuine emotional hunger than what will really satisfy the hunger.  It may be we turn to the pursuit of some pleasure - but the pleasure only lasts for a while and then we are back to the hunger again.  It may be we pursue something we can possess - such as a new car, new home, or the like - but in time, the "newness" and pleasure produced in the acquisition just leaves us all hungry again.  No pursuit of pleasure, possession or even profession can help really satisfy the hunger emotionally - it just dulls it for a season.  In just a short course of time, we go from being "emotionally high" to being on the "emotional low" all over again.  We need to figure out what really satisfies the hunger within and then get after that, not just flit from this or that pursuit with the "hope" it might meet our emotional hunger.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled.  (Matthew 5:6 NIV)

It should come as no surprise to you that your hunger and thirst, two very powerful "motivators" within, were actually created by God.  It was not by accident we were given these "emotional drivers" - they are to serve a purpose.  There is physical hunger and thirst, which motivates us to seek out food and drink - in order to replenish our physical bodies.  There is emotional hunger, which motivates us to reach out to another.  There is spiritual hunger, which motivates us toward worship, praise and prayer.  All types of hunger exist - as do all types of thirst.  Two motivators - multiple reasons for them. What trips us more often than not is not recognizing the "type" of hunger or thirst we are experiencing.  When we fail to recognize what is really making us hungry, we pursue the wrong stuff to "fill us up"!

When God created hunger and thirst, he had in mind the "increasing of capacity".  Hunger and thirst take us from an "empty" status toward a "full" status, don't they?  These two motivators are then designed to increase our capacity for "more".  This is what makes these two motivators so dangerous - especially when we don't get them figured out very well and pursue the wrong kind of stuff to fill us up!  As we well know, satisfaction is sometimes just beyond our reach.  Now, for some of us, we think this is a little cruel.  After all, why would God create us with emotional motivators like this which are just outside of our reach in getting them fulfilled.  Maybe it is to cause our capacity to be increased!  Did you ever stop to think about it that way before? When we attempt to satisfy those emotional desires with something which will "be a close second" to what we really desire and need, it never increases our capacity - in fact, it diminishes it!  Whatever doesn't drive us to increase will eventually cause us to shrink in our capacity!

Anytime we "settle" for something outside of God's best for us, we are falling just short of the thing he has prepared specifically for us.  Let that one settle in a little, friends.  We "settle" in life a lot - spiritually, emotionally, and physically.  In relationships, in life-choices, and in investment of the things we value the most like time, talent and our treasures.  It is this idea of "settling" which brings "second-best" into view.  I don't know about you, but I had to get to a place where I was thoroughly disgusted with "second-best" in my life!  In reaching that spot, God was able to take the desires of hunger and thirst to a new level.  It is often just barely out of reach until we begin to resist the urge to satisfy our hunger and thirst with anything short of what God has in store for us.  

Satisfying our hunger and thirst with anything less than what God intends causes us such emotional upheaval, does it not?  Why do we still pursue these things?  Maybe because we just haven't developed a "trust" in the purpose for our hunger and thirst.  We don't "trust" the hunger and thirst to drive us toward the right stuff - so we settle for what we figure will be a good substitute.  Anything less than God's best for us will always be a poor substitute - as hard as we try, nothing quite satisfies like the things he has prepared ahead of time for us.  All he is waiting for in bringing those things into our lives is for our capacity to be increased a little.  Instead of getting the "quick fix" the next time, maybe we'd do well to ask God to give us the capacity to handle what he has prepared for us!  Just sayin!

Move through to move beyond

Enough:  adequate for the want or need; sufficient for the purpose or to satisfy desire.   Desire:  a longing or craving for something which brings satisfaction or enjoyment.  Have you been so desperate for something that absolutely nothing else enters your mind?  You just cannot turn your attention from whatever it is you long for, craving it with such intensity, nothing else will satisfy.  Wouldn't it be awesome if you could honestly say this about God?  He - the object of your longing or craving - would be the center of your focus so much that nothing else would satisfy!  I wonder how we get to the place where God becomes the object of our desire more than anything else in this world?

God—you’re my God!  I can’t get enough of you!  I’ve worked up such hunger and thirst for God, traveling across dry and weary deserts.  (Psalm 63:1 MSG)

David tells us the secret.  It comes in "working up a hunger and thirst for God".  Where is this hunger and thirst "worked up"?  Ummm...I warn you...you may want to stop reading now!  The hunger and thirst which brings God central in our lives comes in the "traveling across dry and weary deserts".  In the "dry" and "weary" places of life, desire is built - not for the "little bits" of God's presence, but for the "sufficiency" of his presence!

Now, since you have not stopped reading, let's look a little deeper at what David is saying, shall we?  It is in "movement" we find our hunger and thirst built - not in our stagnancy.  David points out it is as we are "travelling across" the dry or weary place we build a hunger and thirst.  Some of us get into the dry or weary place and just take up residence there!  No wonder we don't have our hearts changed!  We "wallow" instead of "travelling through".  Do you know what it means to wallow?  It means to roll in the dirt in hopes we will find refreshment!  Now, how silly is that?  If we were rhinoceros we might actually benefit from the "dirt bath", but dirt just doesn't have the same effect for us!  In fact, it clogs our pores, brings nasty zits which annoy and leave us pocked, and then it gives us a pretty rank smell!  So, I don't recommend "wallowing".  

Probably the definition of "wallowing" which comes closest to what I am think we do when we get into the dry and weary places is to move along, but with such clumsiness and slowness as to reflect our awkwardness with the place we find ourselves in.  We "move", but it is with no real purpose, no intensity. We just "flounder about" in our dryness.  David says we don't work up a thirst unless we are travelling "across".  In other words, from one side to the other! There is a destination in mind - out of the middle of the muddle we are in!  The only way to get out of the mess is to get to the other side of it!

It is in moving across we find the place of moving beyond.  But...to get across, we have to experience a lot along the way.  The dry place is often characterized by the "absence" of something.  We lack something which we need.  The absence builds or intensifies as we begin to "move across" in order to get "beyond".  If you have ever been thirsty, you might just have begun to sense the dryness of your lips, the pastiness of your tongue, or the like.  If you don't address the thirst, what happens?  The intensity of the thirst grows, doesn't it?  The awareness of the absence of the fluid your body craves begins to grow.  In travelling across the dry places in our lives, the intensity of what our spirit craves is growing.  We thirst for that which truly fulfills - not just a tiny taste, but the total immersion!

The movement is key - nothing intensifies thirst or hunger more than "using up" the resources we have at our disposal.  Sometimes God leads us into the dry or weary place to show us how little our "enough" really is!  He allows us to "use up" what resources we have in "reserve" within in order to show us how much more we really need!  The dry places make us aware of our little and his much!  So, rather than focus on the "place" we find ourselves, let's begin to focus on what we will discover in our movement to the "beyond" of this place!  In our movement, I know our hunger and thirst will be intensified, but it is in the discovery of how much we actually hunger and thirst that we come to the place of being opened to receive "more"!  Just sayin!

Emptied to be filled again

^1-2 Directed by God, the whole company of Israel moved on by stages from the Wilderness of Sin. They set camp at Rephidim. And there wasn't a drop of water for the people to drink. The people took Moses to task: "Give us water to drink." But Moses said, "Why pester me? Why are you testing God?"

 ³ But the people were thirsty for water there. They complained to Moses, "Why did you take us from Egypt and drag us out here with our children and animals to die of thirst?"
(Exodus 17:1-3 The Message)

Yesterday, we began to explore the lessons of the barren places of the wilderness we find ourselves in at times.  We looked at the fact that we often find ourselves "camping out" at a place where it seems like no provision will ever be made.  We find ourselves complaining, even growing a little bitter because of the seeming lack of provision in the time we are experiencing.  Today, I'd like us to consider that the steps of a righteous man (and woman) are "ordered" by God.  That means that even the dry places are by his provision!

The most awesome lesson we can embrace in the wilderness barren places of our lives is that provision for our deliverance is only available through our obedience.  Moses was called upon to lead this group of wanderers.  In his leadership, he was often faced with the challenge of a very discouraged group of followers - complaining to him about the seeming barren places they would find themselves experiencing.  That is how we are - we get delivered from something way too powerful and strong for us to ever overcome on our own (like they were delivered from the hands of the Egyptian armies) - and the next thing you know, we are in a dry place and think God has abandoned us! 

The main reason we take so long to actually get out of the wilderness is our "slowness" to learn the lessons of the wilderness journey.  The stages of the wilderness are often shortened through our immediate response to trust God, to be obedient to his direction.  But...obedience is hard and we often struggle with what we don't understand, so we "linger" a little longer at the dry places and bitter waters because of our own struggles!

When all we can see is our past, bemoaning what it is that we have "lost" in our past, we never really see the provision of the present.  In fact, we cannot see the present,  nor the future, until we turn from focusing on the past and move toward the new!  There is a lesson in the wilderness - that is the lesson of release.  In the wilderness, barren places, we learn the value of "releasing" what we have held onto with such tenacity - our past!  It may be something we viewed as "good and enjoyable" - not really a bad thing for us, but something that God wants us to be able to "release" to him so that we can press deeper into him.  It may indeed be something that God desires us to let go of because it weighs us down unnecessarily.  Regardless of the lesson of release he is teaching us, we need to be willing to open our hands (and our hearts) to let go of what he asks us to leave behind.

When we find ourselves in the midst of our complaints about the wilderness - the barren and dry places of our life - we often don't hear the voice of direction.  We miss out on the small voice of God's refreshing that direct us into the places of refreshing we so desperately yearn for.  The stages of the wilderness may just be shortened a little if we'd learn to be quiet long enough, and frequently enough, to listen for his voice in the moments of seeming barrenness.

I just returned from a trip to the East Coast - enjoying a week in the tall oaks, observing the changing of the colors of the leaves, marveling at the intensity of greens, yellows, oranges, and reds.  The time was definitely a refreshing retreat from the struggles of the present "battles" that I found myself in just prior to leaving.  I am never more thankful for the dry place than when I get to experience the refreshment of his provision!  Remember, getting through the wilderness is done in stages.  The steps may seem a little methodical, and a little tumultuous, but they are indeed steps that will reveal his provision all along the way when we keep our eyes focused on him.

When we begin to experience "release" of what we once counted on, held onto so dearly, we sometimes feel a little barren - emptied inside.  That is another lesson of the wilderness - it leaves you empty just long enough to be filled up again!  God's goal is to empty us of what really does us no good to hold onto and to fill us with that which will refresh us for the journey ahead.  Not sure what you are being asked to let go of today, but just know that when you are emptied, he stands ready to fill!

Water...I need water!

^1-2 Directed by God, the whole company of Israel moved on by stages from the Wilderness of Sin. They set camp at Rephidim. And there wasn't a drop of water for the people to drink. The people took Moses to task: "Give us water to drink."  But Moses said, "Why pester me? Why are you testing God?"  ³ But the people were thirsty for water there. They complained to Moses, "Why did you take us from Egypt and drag us out here with our children and animals to die of thirst?"  

(Exodus 17:1-3 The Message)

Okay, I just have to ask this question - why on earth would a huge band of wandering people actually "camp out" in a place where there was absolutely no visible water for their basic physical needs?  Sometimes I think we just don't "think" about where it is that we "camp out" for a while along the way.  We "get going" with God really well, then all of a sudden, we find ourselves "camped out" at a place that seems barren, without any provision for our basic needs, let alone our spiritual needs!  Then what do we do?  You got it!  We complain to God because we are in a barren and dry place!  There are times that I wonder if God would just as soon answer with "Duh!" instead of his overwhelming patience.

As I was reading this passage with my weekly Bible Study small group, I just got carried away by God to a place of considering the words of the passage.  I want us to break this down a little to see what God can reveal to us through these "wilderness wanderings" of his people, Israel.  First, I saw that the passage began with the words, "Directed by God".  That means that they weren't in a barren and dry place totally because they just wandered out their on their own.  They were on a path with God and came upon this dry place.  The fact is, we don't know what the path will hold, but God does.  He is aware of the exact points of "barrenness and dryness" that are part of the wilderness journey and he prepares a way out of the desert place (in his time).

Coming out of the desert place is often done in stages.  We seldom find that moving from the wilderness into the land of plenty is never a "direct" journey for us.  In fact, we see that the wilderness almost presents obstacles to us ever getting out of that place!  Water was essential to this group - and they had none.  It likely seemed quite impossible to them that they'd ever leave the wilderness without the provision of water they'd need to make the journey.  We would probably equate this to the various "things" that just seem to keep "coming up" in our journey that seem to "trip us up" a little.  The fact is, God prepared this people to make the move to this very place.  Therefore, there must be a provision in what appears to have nothing of value!

Why do we move by stages through the wilderness?  God has to take enough time to teach us the lessons of the wilderness.  I think there are a lot of lessons that we only become attune to when we are stripped of all we depend upon and are face-to-face with our utter need.  In those places, no provision that we could make on our own will get us through.  In fact, we keep camping out at the bitter waters and the dry places, completely unaware of the miracle that lies just beyond the points of our intensest need!

The waters you face in the wilderness today may be a little bitter, if they exist at all.  The bitterness of reliance on our own efforts, past failures, disappointments of missed opportunities - all need God's touch to truly make them "sweetness" in our lives.  In the place of barrenness and thirst, we finally find that God's touch is all that will take care of the bitterness we have experienced.

Tomorrow, I will expand upon these lessons of the barren place a little further.  Until then, don't curse God for the barren place, but thank him for the miracle that is just around the corner.  His purpose in the barren place is just to drive us further into his provision!

Table for Two

You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.

(Matthew 5:6 The Message)

I once heard it said that you know that you are living the way God intends when you find that you are taking what you see and hear in the Word of God and begin to live by them.  I think it goes beyond that - to actually living UPON them - they become foundational to all you think and do.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus repeatedly begins a number of statements with the words, "Blessed are you when..."  In the scripture, I found that we are blessed when we exhibit a poverty of spirit, hunger for his righteousness, experience sorrow, and in moments of persecution when we are reliant on nothing more than Jesus to pull us through.  Okay, now that is not a list of "stuff" that I would automatically add to my Christmas wishlist!

How many of us can honestly say that we have worked up a good appetite for God?  Most of us would be honest and say that, at best, it is good some days and not so good on others.  In fact, sometimes our appetite for the things of God is plainly not in control of anything we are "putting into" our lives at that moment!  We take in gossip and wonder why we feel "used up" and kind of "vacant" at the end of the day.  We ingest "empty calories" in a spiritual sense by spending hours upon hours "vegging" in front of the TV and wonder why we are "spiritually flabby".  Ummm...call me silly....but don't we have to pay attention to what we take in and how we use it to be sure it is "good for us"?

Poverty of spirit is not being empty of the spiritually good things that God has prepared for us.  In fact, it is the exact opposite.  It is the condition of being aware that we have nothing good within us that we can offer to God.  We find ourselves aware that apart from the grace of God in our lives, we having nothing good to offer him!  Christ's disciples walked with him along the seashores and through the valleys.  They climbed to mountain tops with him, and found themselves in throngs of seeking people.  Where he was, they were.  They had little, traveled light, but enjoyed much!  Why?  Because in those moments of experiencing Jesus, they were having their faith made rich!

There are a lot of things in this world begging to satisfy our hunger.  God's greatest desire for us is that we will desire to have our hunger satisfied with goodness, peace, and mercy.  He delights in hearing that we are hungry for more of him.  I remember a neighbor of ours when I was growing up.  The family was Italian and loved to make huge meals when "company" came over.  We sat at a long table, laden with all kinds of pasta, sauce, cheese, bread, and other delightful items.  The enjoyment of that meal was made the richer by the company we kept!  The enjoyment of what God provides is made richer by the company we keep with him!

Psalm 125 reminds us that God encircles his people - always has and always will.  Even in the times when all seems to be lost, God encircles his people - always has and always will.  In fact, the very next Psalm tells us that those who plant in times of drought will rejoice in times of harvest.  Those who went off with heavy hearts will return dancing and singing in their hearts.  God's rewards are much different than anything that the world offers us.  In the world, we wallow in our sorrow.  In God's presence, we learn the deep lessons of sorrow.  In the world, we see no end in the drought.  In God's presence, we see the possibilities of rain in even the wispiest cloud!

What makes you hungry today?  What has become foundational in your life?  Is the Word of God more than a thing that you believe in - has it become the very basis of all you believe and DO?  How long has it been since you have felt encircled by God's arms - welcomed to his table, enjoying his company?  Perhaps it is time for a really good meal in his presence!