|
What is Spiritual Hunger? |
|
|
|
When I was a boy, my Pastor Billy Roy Moore of The Lord's Chapel in Nashville used to compare the spiritual life to fruit. This was the first person I ever heard compare God to food. He said something to the effect of:
Stay green, because the next step is ripe. Which is only one step from rotten.
Interesting philosophy, huh?
Here's another one, this one is from my wife Shelly. It's based on something the Apostle Paul said:
I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound.
Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be
full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
Philippians 3:4
Paul meant it a bit different than my wife's application. Shelly told me early in our dating days that she wanted to always be like that spiritually. She said, "I want to be hungry and full of the Lord at all times." Although she had taken the scripture a bit out of context, her application was right on the money. I set out that day to live my life in the manner Shelly had described: Hungry and Full. To me, Shelly had a handle on the question What Is Spiritual Hunger? The follow through seems at times to be a bit elusive in life, but the goal of always staying hungry for more of God while remaining full of Him remains the same.
Sometimes we find ourselves feeling more spiritually abased, beaten, and broken. These are the times that many of us would like to pretend don't exist. We put on our faith face all the while fighting and struggling spiritually.
Jesus said that there would be tribulation in this life, but that doesn't mean God sent the tribulation. I believe that if the "abased" keep their focus on God they will move to "abounding." Too many of us walk around abased and afraid to abound in Christ, yet that is what Jesus paid for with His life: Our Right to Abound in Him!
I want you to take a few minutes and examine your heart. In this context, are you Hungry? Are you Full? The goal is to be both.
-Bob Heath |
