Jeremiah 29:13; Psalms 34:8; Proverbs 19:17
Hunger: An Appetite for More of God
Hunger pains are real—that ache that gnaws at you until you satisfy the
emptiness.
Do you ever feel hunger pains for God or is your soul too stuffed with
material things? Are you willing to release your appetite for temporal things
and increase your appetite for more of God?
Author Ann Voskamp experienced this hunger for God on a visit to
Guatemala with Compassion International. She writes:
…when I’m standing there witnessing a kid at the Guatemalan City Dump
looking for something to eat from a garbage heap, I’m feeling this North
American bloated. That I’m feeling a little sickened, a little nauseated by the
meringue and sprinkles and icing we’re stuffing ourself with that leaves us
faith-emaciated. There’s a kid looking through rotting garbage for food, for
crying out loud. Somebody — cry out loud.
And the stuff they’re shilling in all the commercials is always only
one thing: appetite suppressants. Buy more, consume more, have more — and it’ll
suppress any appetite for God.
My head feels light, spinny: Is craving North American success just
craving normal appetite suppressants? When your comfort food is comfortable
stuff — when do you hunger for the comfort of the bread of Life?
Ruin your appetite with stuff and you have no appetite for Christ.
In our verses today, we learned that when we seek God, we will find
Him! One way to increase our appetite for God is help those less fortunate.
Proverbs 19:17 says, “Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and He
will reward them for what they have done.”
The person in this verse saw the plight of a neighbor in need and
stepped in to help. Their loan may have been a monetary gift or maybe it was a
generous act of friendship. The poor can often not repay, but God has infinite
resources.
Two things are important here: 1) The kindness is an act of compassion.
Love is the key. Helping the poor is of no use if it is done for selfish gain.
2) God takes the kindness and considers it as if it were done to Him.
Ann Voskamp reminds us, “It’s only by amazing grace you are born where
you are — to be abundant, amazing grace for someone born somewhere else. That’s
the point
Adapted
From: Attributes Of Compassion - You
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