“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Matthew 5:6 ESV
he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.
Luke 1:53
Last week I was having lunch after the Sunday service in Hermosillo, Sonora. We had finished a three-day conference the night before, and I had the privilege of speaking at the host church that Sunday morning. The pastor, a man in ministry for many years, made this comment as we waited for our meal: “It’s amazing. We had church Wednesday night, all day Thursday, all day Friday, and all day Saturday. Yet there they were again this morning, ready to hear the Word. They are so hungry!” It’s true. The hunger is almost palpable. I could feel it when I got up to preach.
Not every church is like this. Many just go through the motions. It’s Sunday, let’s go to church, let’s go to lunch, let’s go to the ball game. God uses many things to make people hungry. Moses told Israel about their wilderness experience, “And he (the Lord) humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. (Deuteronomy 8:3).
Similarly, the prodigal son was allowed to go his own way until he ended up in a pigsty. That’s when he remembered how good it was at his father’s house, “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!” (Luke 15:17). If you’re wandering in the desert or wallowing with the pigs, today is a good day to head for Father’s House.
For the rest of us who know it’s Sunday and feel kind of “ho hum” about going to church, maybe it’s time to get hungry. Peter told the church that if they had experienced the grace of the Lord, they should be “like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation” (1 Peter 2:2). In other words, if you’re a Christian, God gives you the privilege of becoming hungry on purpose. You can choose to seek the things of God with the passion of a hungry child. You don’t have to wait for the desert or the pigsty, you can get hungry right now!
As we decide to go to the house of God this morning, let’s make a conscious decision to get hungry. “Lord I long for you. I crave your presence. I earnestly desire the fellowship of your people. I hunger for the teaching of your precious and holy written word. Your words are life and health to those who find them. I am going searching today. You said seek and you will find. I am seeking, and I will find, in Jesus’ Name.”
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