HUNGER

Each year, we as a staff team pick a summer theme to research, pray about, dig into, digest, and then put into Bible study for the near 1000 people that visit our campuses. This year we felt led to the theme of HUNGER. Below is the lesson God laid on my heart to contribute to the Bible study. Enjoy it!

The Lord doesn’t do anything by accident. I love that J It would have been more than easy for Him to create us as self-sufficient human beings, able to sustain ourselves. Not needing anything; not needing water, shelter, etc. even able to produce our own food much like plants do… but the truth is that He created us with needs. He created with needs, longings, and desires for things outside of ourselves. We are not self-sustaining. Again, God does not do anything by accident. I believe one reason He created us with physical needs and feelings is so He could use them to teach us about our spiritual needs. Our topic is HUNGER. How many of us have been hungry? We know what it feels like, right? We know that gnawing feeling in the pit of our stomach when we are an hour late to our lunch. It is all consuming. It is all we think about. Even the slightest smell of food will get our mouths watering and our stomachs grumbling. More than ever before we notice the commercials on TV and the billboards of hamburgers, French fries, flank steaks, Snickers bars, hotdogs … Something that would never have tempted us before now seems irresistible. Why? Simple. We’re hungry and we were created to be satisfied.

Like I said before, God doesn’t allow us to be hungry by accident. He desires to teach us through our grumbling stomachs and our desire to be satisfied. In Psalm 63:1 it says,

“O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”

When was the last time you felt that irresistible, gnawing hunger for more of the Lord in your life?

The Psalmist talks about his body longing for the Lord; thirsting for more of Him. Have you felt like that about God? Do you feel like that about Him now?

In Ephesians 3:17 Paul is praying for the Church in Ephesus. He says, “ I pray that you being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

God is uncomprehendable! His love is unfathomable! It surpasses knowledge. Never during this life on earth will we be able to comprehend God. There will always be more of Him to hunger for, to strive after, to discover…. If we are satisfied already, there is a problem.

When we are truly hungry our stomach is all we think about, our primary thought. In the same way when we are truly hungry for the Lord, He is our all consuming thought. Not our friends, not our image, not our success, not ourselves… Him. I think it is healthy to take a good look at our hunger scale. The purpose is not to condemn ourselves or exalt ourselves but to honestly and accurately evaluate where our hearts are. God already knows where your heart is, but sometimes it is good for us to be honest with where we are as well.

Which phrase best describes your hunger for the Lord right now?

- - No desire for Him

Somewhat hungry, but also interested in other things

- - Glad I’m saved, but that’s enough for me thank you

- - Getting hungrier

- - Satisfied with where my relationship with Him is right now

- - Can’t get enough of Him in my life

Other:_______________________