When you find your hunger, you can feed your hunger.
Hunger sends us searching even when we don’t know what we want.
It works the same way with hunger for spiritual protein. We all know what happens if we feed hunger with something fast and convenient. We may like the taste and enjoy the quick satisfaction; but it doesn’t last. True spiritual hunger craves what sustains and grows. Feed it emotional, feel-good, empty platitudes and growth stalls without your realizing it.
So how do you feed a spiritual hunger? Here are my three guiding principles:
1. Always invite the Spirit of Truth to guide you to Truth.
I can’t stress this step enough. We undermine our search quickly by taking scripture and making it say what we want to hear. The Holy Spirit knows you, your journey, your fears, your unanswered questions. Jesus told us His Spirit would companion us in the very same way that his physical presence made a difference to the disciples while He was on earth. The true Teacher is here with us. We are missing nothing. Don’t ever take a journey into His Word without Him.
2. Ask questions.
Did you know that people who ask questions know more than people who don’t? It’s a simple formula for extending knowledge about anything. Read scripture as if you are involved in a sit-down conversation with the Author because you are! Ask your questions. Why is this here? What are you trying to say? What does this mean to me?
3. Absorb the message, the promise, the principle, or the warning.
As one Bible teacher said, “Don’t just ingest it; digest it.” Let Truth settle, go all the way to the center of your being and change or deepen or grow something there. Keep it in your thoughts through the day. See your relationships or work or problems through the lens of a Truth from God’s Word. That’s the way growth happens. It’s not a try harder to be anything better. It’s about opening your heart to Truth and letting Truth fight for the person God knows you can be. It’s saying “yes” to God’s Word even when you don’t know what it might mean when you live it.
Do You Have Five Minutes?
If you have five minutes, read five verses. Apply the directives from above and see what happens. Don’t worry if some Truth doesn’t knock you down at first. Just soak in the awareness that these are God’s Words to you. Carry the journey they share about conflict or story or warning or promise. Let them be the lens through which you look at the world around you. Sometimes the message comes as a shout. Sometimes it’s a whisper. Sometimes it’s just the bliss of taking God’s Word, His creative and everlasting Word, with you as your armor or your hiding place.
No Ought to's!
Put away what you think you ought to get out of God’s Word. Ought-to’s are the enemy of growth or peace. Let it be what it is—God’s invitation to see His heart, His longing, His unfailing love for you.
Nothing will feed your hunger for spiritual protein more than the awareness of how much you are loved and accepted by the God who created you. Let it awaken the hunger that only a personal, empowering relationship with the God of all Truth can bring. Then, feast on the all-power meal set before you by the Creator of the Universe!
The Challenge
Here’s my challenge. I want to take us on a short journey into joy from Philippians. I will focus on one to two verses from Philippians for the next seven weeks. I’ll give them to you the week before so you can read them, apply the principles from above and live with them for the week. Then, I will make them the focus of my next blog. Let’s see if we can feed our need for joy.
Are you with me?
Sharing the journey,
Debbie
