TO EASILY SATISFIED?

Some more of my thoughts on HUNGER from this summer...

We like to be comfortable, don’t we? We don’t like to feel hunger pains in our stomachs. As soon as we start feeling that twinge we rush to the kitchen cabinet and grab the Wheat Thins, Twinkies, Slim Jims, or whatever we can to satisfy us and stop that annoying ache. The Snickers wrapper pretty much says it all: “Hungry? Why Wait?”

If you have a mom like mine then you have probably heard that snacking ruins your appetite for dinner. How true! How many times I have run to the kitchen to squelch my hunger with cheese puffs, Doritos, or a granola bar then to have no appetite for the steak and potatoes mom prepared. On the few rare occasions that I have let my stomach continue to rumble and waited for the dinner bell, the meal has tasted better than ever before!

Do we hunger after the Lord and desire His nourishment in our lives? Or do we sell out and become easily satisfied with the first thing we can get our hands on?

One of my favorite quotes from C.S. Lewis illustrates it perfectly:

"It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."
— C.S. Lewis (Weight of Glory and Other Addresses)

Are you “far too easily pleased”? Are you satisfied with mud pies when you could be vacationing at the seashore? Are you filling up on Cheetos when a steak dinner awaits you?

Take a look at Isaiah 55:2-3 from the Message translation and let the words sink in.

“Why do you spend your money on junk food, your hard-earned cash on cotton candy? Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best, fill yourself with only the finest. Pay attention, come close now, listen carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words. I'm making a lasting covenant commitment with you, the same that I made with David: sure, solid, enduring love.”

In Proverbs 27:7 it says, “He who is full loathes honey, but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet.”

When we fill our spiritual stomachs with things besides Christ we often don’t have an appetite for Him. He is the best we can have, but when we are already “full” with things of this world we “loath” Christ, the BEST and most nourishing meal. However, when we are truly hungry, even what normally tastes bitter seems sweet to us. The truth is, friend, that Christ is not bitter!!!! What He has to offer us so rich! Isaiah 25:6 describes the Lord preparing a feast of rich food for all people, “a banquet of aged wine- the best of meats and the finest of wines.” That is what he is offering us! If the bitter tastes sweet when we are hungry, how will the finest of meats taste to our grumbling stomachs?

Are there things in your life that you are using to “satisfy” your cravings instead of letting Christ satisfy you? What? A relationship? A promotion? A car? Sex? Alcohol? Music? Television?

Maybe you have tasted the Lord. Maybe you have let Him satisfy a part of your heart, but have you let Him satisfy your whole heart? Have you tasted Him and been satisfied with just one bite? Friend, He has a whole meal for you to enjoy, not just a few bites. Are you hungry to go deeper in relationship with Him or are you satisfied with where you are at?

There is so much more of the Lord to pursue! Salvation is simply the beginning of a lifelong incredible pursuit to know Christ in His fullness (1 Cor. 13:12)