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Do You Want A Hunger for God?

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I am fasting today

I am fasting today and I am really hungry. As a matter of fact, I find myself thinking about what I am going to eat when I break my fast. You could say I am longing for food. That’s what my physical being is feeling right now—longing for food.

But what about my soul? What is it longing for today?  How much attention have I even given to my soul? Yet isn’t that the purpose of fasting–to turn our longings for the physical things of the earth into the spiritual longings of heaven?  These are the thoughts going through my head today as I listen to and feel the rumble of my stomach!

What I am longing for

First of all, I am aware that the pangs I am feeling today are directly related to the need for food. That isn’t always the case. Oftentimes when stomachs are not quite right we wonder if it was something we ate. Or perhaps it is anxiety. We aren’t always sure of the cause. But today as sure as I know that I am hungry, I know what I am longing for–the virus to go away, people to be healed, people to be protected from exposure, economies to be restored, people to be hugged, churches to be filled with worshippers, stores and restaurants to be open, toilet paper on every shelf!! But is that really the greatest need? What should my soul be longing for?  “My soul thirsts (longs) for God, for the living God.” Psalm 42:2  Rather than praying for it all to go away I am praying that the desperation for the presence of God that I feel today, will be with me for the rest of my days. My greatest need is, and always will be, for HIM.

To what degree do you “feast” on the things of God

Secondly, I am very thankful today for food. Every day I eat better than a vast majority of the world. Today I CHOOSE to go without, but how many every day go without sustenance because they have no choice? I also have spiritual food at my disposal every minute of every day. I have many Bibles, both in print and online. I have more books than I can possibly read, access to sermons, podcasts, articles…..the list goes on and on. I could literally spend every hour of everyday reading, listening, etc, and yet there are some who cling to one page of the Bible because that is all they have. Some still have no Word of God in their own language, a fact which still stuns me. So what am I doing with all this spiritual food at my disposal? What are you doing? To what degree do we “feast” on the things of God as compared to the things we “feast” on that are of this world and are passing away?

Do you long for God’s will more than you longing for other things?

Finally, I am thinking of Jesus’ words, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me”, John 4:24. What is my food? Is it to do His will or mine? Do I even ask Him what He wants me to do each day or do I rely on my own understanding? Do I long for His will more than I am longing for that dinner I am going to have tonight when I eat again? Who am I really living for, myself, or He who created me?  Can I give Him praise that today I have plenty of time to ponder these questions, or would I really rather be out shopping?

Do you have an insatiable longing to see God?

This too shall pass is an expression we hear often these days. My hunger will pass in just a few short hours. This time of “exile” will too. None of us knows when, and none of us knows what life will look like on the other side, but this is my prayer–it will be delight our souls to see all that God was doing in the lives of individuals and in the life of the church while we thought we were doing nothing! I have no desire to be the same person I was on the day I shut my door to the outside world. I have no desire to see the church be the same as it was when she was placed in exile. Today my prayer for you and for me is that our hunger will not be for things to be as they were, but for things to be so much better, better as defined by God. May these be the days where God draws many to Himself and creates in all who genuinely know Him, an insatiable longing to see His face.

To God be the glory!!

by Holly Carr

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