Once we have encountered the love of our Father up close and personal, we become addicted for life. We just can’t get enough of Him. It’s as Jesus reveals Himself to us that we find ourselves hungering to know Him more intimately and to love Him more earnestly. Speaking from his own experience, St. Augustine said, “You flashed, You shone; and You chased away my blindness. You became fragrant; and I inhaled and sighed for You. I tasted, and now hunger and thirst for You. You touched me; and I burned for Your embrace.”
Spiritual hunger is the result of encountering Christ in our lives. That hunger then becomes the bridge by which we gain a heightened awareness of Him with us in our circumstances. Spiritual hunger will cause us to move through life with our spiritual antenna up, looking for signals of His presence nearby. Ask the Lord to reach into your life like He did with Augustine. Then patiently wait for Him to flash, to shine, and to chase away your own blindness to His presence. He will come to you and do just that.
Remember that cultivating a spiritual hunger isn’t something you do. It’s a sovereign work of God that He does because He wants to constantly enjoy intimate moments with you. It’s important that you don’t turn this into a legalistic effort to try to accomplish something spiritually productive for yourself. Modern ministry often suggests that there are things we must do in order to experience the fullness of Christ in our lives, but the Bible teaches to the contrary.
God promises in Scripture, “I will pour water on him that is thirsty” (Isaiah 44:3). We aren’t the reason for any good aspect of our walk with Christ. We are simply the recipients of every good thing that He does in our lives. “Open your mouth wide and I will fill it” (Psalm 81:10) promises the Lord. Are you hungry? Then open your mouth…wide.
Remember, nobody ever came to Jesus hungry and went away that way. Jesus once asked, “What man will give a rock to his hungry son who asks for bread? Would he give him a snake if the son asked for an egg?” Then the Lord promised, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him” (Matthew 7:11)? You can be sure that in your search for intimacy with Christ, you won’t be disappointed. He can’t resist a person who is spiritually hungry. Are you hungry for the food of intimacy with Him? He will satisfy it!
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EXACTLY what I needed to read today when I finally got to it in my RSS reader! I've been facing the temptation to resort to certain practices and rituals to cultivate a spiritual hunger, but knew that it wasn't right to give in to it. Much better to ask Jesus for a hunger for Him, and trust that He's pouring it out and giving it in His way, at His time which will always be right!
ReplyDeleteGod wants to directly guide you by the Son. He wants to get His fingers dirty in your life! Hear an old Jesus People song from 1971: Front Seat Back Seat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeBXRDZEpYA
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI was just listening to you on Growing in Grace Podcast. I have to personally disagree that Jesus alone gives you a spiritual hunger. I think we are responsible for our spiritual life not in any way can we please God without faith and faith that jesus did it all for me. Now the Holy spirit is always drawing me to himself, but I am responsible to respond.
I believe the Lord ask me to face for 40 days and I needed to respond and I did and it was easy beacuse he gave me the grace to do it. I pray all the time, Jesus give me a greater revelation of you. Sometimes I get it sometimes I don't. But I keep praying. I am responsible for my life, not the fruit of it, but being faithful.
Tim