What Are You Hungry For?

Photo Credit: _John Hikins Flickr via Compfight cc

How does your hunger influence how you live? Do you build your life around it? How do you make sure your hunger is healthy and good and not destructive?

Followers of Jesus have some specific things they hunger for:

His voice. Hearing the voice of the one we love is enough. I love the lilt of my wife’s voice. It brings me comfort. Hearing the voice of Jesus brings assurance and comfort. We hear his voice as we pray, as we meditate on his word, as we worship him.

His guidance. We know that his leadership is perfect. We also know that our decisions have not always turned out well. We earnestly desire to know where he wants us to go, what he wants us to say and do. We need his clear directions!

His presence. Again, it is profound to experience his presence. His manifest presence is so indescribable. To know he is with us powerfully makes every problem and circumstance shrink in our perceptions. His presence overwhelms every difficulty!

His peace. The world we live in is full of trouble and trial. He gives us peace –  a peace that is more than any trouble or trial we face. His peace calms our hearts and our anxieties and gives us an assurance that everything will indeed be alright.

His love. There is a universal yearning to be loved. We all need love. We all want love. We are hungry for an unconditional love. We long to experience the love that comes from God through Jesus into our lives. As we hunger for this love, we can know that God gives us his love, too. How sweet it is to experience the love of God

His joy. Life can be very hard. The circumstances we face had impede our joy. Some days don’t feel joyful at all! We need the joy of Jesus in our lives all the time.

His power. He promised us power. He sent us his Holy Spirit to reside in us with power. But, often, we forget the power. Our hunger for the power of God inside us to come out is a real hunger that we need to have satisfied.

How do we satisfy these hungers?

Pray. Our time of prayer is a time when we can pour out our hearts to God. Just as you don’t get a meal at a restaurant to satisfy your hunger unless you order it, so we come to God in prayer and express our desire to have our hunger satisfied.

Worship. When we forget about ourselves and focus on him in worship something powerful happens. We begin to experience his presence. With all our hearts and thoughts and words and actions concentrated on lifting him up, we satisfy our own hunger for more of him!

Feed on the Word of God. Our daily time in God’s word provides us with guidance, encouragement, correction, nourishment and more! There is no substitute for this daily time hearing his voice.

Love. Jesus describes love as the greatest commandment. We must love God with all we have. He is worthy of that love. His love for us is unconditional and overwhelming. Our love for him must also be unconditional and overwhelming. Decide to love him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

Trust. Learning to trust him with everything is something we grow into. It is best to trust him with everything all the time. We can do this. As we do, we find our hunger for him satisfied more each day.

Today – what are you hungry for? What will you do about it?