Thursday, August 30, 2018

An appetite for God


An appetite for God

Daily Reading:  Proverbs 27-28

Scripture Focus: One who is full loathes honey, but to one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet. (Proverbs 27.7)

Devotional Thought: Most Wednesday nights I go to the Feed Mill to get pie with some friends.  I have a bad habit of finishing off my friends' pie if they don't keep it closely guarded!  Once in a while, Rachael gets the Oreo pie.  It is sooo good!  But, if I eat too much of it - after having cleaned up my peanut butter pie - I find out that it starts to taste  bad.  Too much sugar!  When I'm hungry, though, it's delicious!

Did you know the same thing is true spiritually?  When we're 'full' nothing tastes good.  When we're hungry, everything satisfies.

God has a hard time getting through to us when we are full.  Our world is full of all kinds of things to fill our minds and hearts - television, internet, hobbies, relationships, entertainments, sports...  We are over-stimulated.  When we get so full with these things, there is no room for God.  We actually get to feeling sick!  It's even true that we can gorge ourselves on religious TV and by the time we get to church, we are no longer hungry!

But, oh when we're hungry, the Word of God and the fellowship of the saints and the songs of Zion satisfy us!  I've noticed that the self-sufficient have no need for God and are slow to respond.  There are those, however, who are hungry for peace.  They feast on God.  Others are lonely and eat the living Bread of Christ's presence.  Some are looking for meaning and find that Jesus satisfies.  And, most of all, those who are hungry for the eternal, the settled, the unmovable - in short those who are hungry for God - are able to feast on the goodness of the Lord.

Amen!

Prayer: Help me, Lord, not to fill my life up so much that there is no room left for you, no appetite left for the things of the Spirit.  May I, by your grace, hunger and thirst for righteousness and be filled!  Amen.

Psalm of the Day:  24 O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. 25 Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great. 26 There go the ships, and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it. 27 These all look to you, to give them their food in due season. 28 When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. 29 When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. 30 When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground. 31 May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works, 32 who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke! 33 I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being. 34 May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the LORD. 35 Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more! Bless the LORD, O my soul! Praise the LORD! (Psalms 104:24-35)

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