Hungry

You're sitting in your favorite chair all relaxed watching television. Suddenly you feel hungry, but you resist the urge to scavenge the pantry by concentrating on what you're watching. Then, after a few tantalizing commercials, you remember those double-stuffed, cream filled cookies you bought just to have in the house for when unexpected guest drop in. Before you know it, you're returning to your favorite chair, cookies and milk in hand. It's a slam-dunk snack, but, oddly enough, after eating and watching, you still go to bed hungry.

 

The Bible tells us that after Jesus fed the 5,000 they wanted to make Him king. Jesus resisted the idea and told the disciples to go to the other side of the lake while He went away to pray. The people longed for a king that could feed them, so they tracked Jesus down the next day. When they found Him, they began to ask if He could feed them manna like Moses did in the wilderness. The picnic the day before was pretty awesome and not cooking every day sounded too good to be true!

 

They hungered for more bread from heaven, bread they could taste that would satisfy their needs.

 

Jesus knew that people's perceived hunger for a miracle was really their hunger for a relationship with God. After telling them He didn't come to feed them food like Moses, He said, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty (John 6:35).Jesus was saying that He is what they craved—a relationship with Him would satisfy their deepest hunger and thirst. They had misplaced their spiritual longing for God with a physical craving for food. Most of them didn't understand. In their physical-minded world, food was the only source of satisfaction for hunger. Jesus, however, came to fill the hunger of the soul with a living relationship with God through Him.

 

The next time you get the urge to snack, ask yourself, "When was the last time I tasted the Bread of Life?" Then, rather than following the path to the pantry, take a detour to a quiet place and feast till your soul's content on the Bread of Life and the Living Water. Jesus said, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for the righteousness, for they will be filled (Matthew 4:6).

 

Eat up! Your soul will be satisfied and you'll go to bed full.