Hunger Pains
Hunger Pains
A couple of days ago I wrote about spiritual hunger. Learning that God gives food to the hungry, and that my level of hunger for encountering God is up to me has literally changed my life. But, there is a pattern to the reach for God. It is important that I understand the emotional chemistry that takes place when I contend for more of God:
Psalms 43:2-3 For You are the God of my strength; Why do You cast me off? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your tabernacle.
In this passage, the writer describes hungering for God to break in. It really doesn't sound all that positive! Reaching for God, asking God for more hunger for Him...asking Him to create more space so He can fill it....Is actually asking for a negative feeling!
Hunger doesn't "feel" good. If you were in a room full of people, and they were all eating, and you were hungry but weren't given any food, it would not feel good. Hunger feels bad. But, Jesus said:
Matthew 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.
This requires faith. In fact, the pattern of reaching for God with my requests for more hunger for Him and His kingdom, and then experiencing the hunger build, is designed to radically build faith. I cannot rely on emotion or eyesight in this process, because the answer to the prayer for hunger actually looks and feels like being "cast off" for a while. The answer to my prayer for hunger is hunger...a void in my heart...and then my heart is tempted to say "God, I'm reaching for you, why don't I feel your near presence like I did before I started reaching!?" God would answer "I am making space to fill! Press in! This feeling is the answer to your prayer for more!"
The enemy will use any opportunity he can to accuse God. His constant accusation is that there is some good thing God is holding back on me. When my kids were small, it wasn't uncommon for them to think I was being mean, or didn't like them as much, when I wouldn't give them exactly what they thought they wanted, when they wanted it. A good parent makes choices for long term health and growth, not always instant gratification. I "saw more" about life than my kids when they were 3....i knew a steady diet of ice cream, or staying up late, although it sounds perfect to a 3 year old (or 11 year old), would actually not be good for them. I have to continually remind myself that I don't see nearly as much of life as my Father does. I can't trust my feelings to guide me. I desperately need to trust my good Father. If He says hunger and thirst are good...they are certainly good!
This is how Jesus described prayer...requesting good things from our Father:
Matthew 7:7-11 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
Luke 18:1-7 Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’ ” Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them
There is only one way to more of the kingdom. You can't read your way to it. It doesn't come by being in the right crowd, or the right church. You can't buy it. There is only one way to get more:
Mark 10:15 Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.”
We don't "receive" the kingdom all in one shot. The day I was saved by trusting in Jesus' payment for my sin, I received salvation by asking for it and agreeing with it in my life. But there is MUCH more to the kingdom than salvation. There is a lot God would love to give me. The baptism of the Spirit, wisdom, understanding, insight...Jesus' forming His life in my heart , and an infinite number of things I don't even know to contend for yet. An infinite God will take an infinite amount of time to explore and know. Eternity will NOT be boring! The kingdom of God is full of vast riches there for the asking...there for the contending.
A child has no resources of their own, no concept of the value of what they want and no means to obtain it other than going to the one that has it and requesting it. If I want more of the kingdom, I have to humble myself, and request it from my Father, trusting that He knows how to give good gifts to those who ask. Food to the hungry and living water to the thirsty.
Psalms 43:1-5 Vindicate me, O God, And plead my cause against an ungodly nation; Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man! For You are the God of my strength; Why do You cast me off? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your tabernacle. Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; And on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God. Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.
A couple of days ago I wrote about spiritual hunger. Learning that God gives food to the hungry, and that my level of hunger for encountering God is up to me has literally changed my life. But, there is a pattern to the reach for God. It is important that I understand the emotional chemistry that takes place when I contend for more of God:
Psalms 43:2-3 For You are the God of my strength; Why do You cast me off? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your tabernacle.
In this passage, the writer describes hungering for God to break in. It really doesn't sound all that positive! Reaching for God, asking God for more hunger for Him...asking Him to create more space so He can fill it....Is actually asking for a negative feeling!
Hunger doesn't "feel" good. If you were in a room full of people, and they were all eating, and you were hungry but weren't given any food, it would not feel good. Hunger feels bad. But, Jesus said:
Matthew 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.
This requires faith. In fact, the pattern of reaching for God with my requests for more hunger for Him and His kingdom, and then experiencing the hunger build, is designed to radically build faith. I cannot rely on emotion or eyesight in this process, because the answer to the prayer for hunger actually looks and feels like being "cast off" for a while. The answer to my prayer for hunger is hunger...a void in my heart...and then my heart is tempted to say "God, I'm reaching for you, why don't I feel your near presence like I did before I started reaching!?" God would answer "I am making space to fill! Press in! This feeling is the answer to your prayer for more!"
The enemy will use any opportunity he can to accuse God. His constant accusation is that there is some good thing God is holding back on me. When my kids were small, it wasn't uncommon for them to think I was being mean, or didn't like them as much, when I wouldn't give them exactly what they thought they wanted, when they wanted it. A good parent makes choices for long term health and growth, not always instant gratification. I "saw more" about life than my kids when they were 3....i knew a steady diet of ice cream, or staying up late, although it sounds perfect to a 3 year old (or 11 year old), would actually not be good for them. I have to continually remind myself that I don't see nearly as much of life as my Father does. I can't trust my feelings to guide me. I desperately need to trust my good Father. If He says hunger and thirst are good...they are certainly good!
This is how Jesus described prayer...requesting good things from our Father:
Matthew 7:7-11 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
Luke 18:1-7 Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’ ” Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them
There is only one way to more of the kingdom. You can't read your way to it. It doesn't come by being in the right crowd, or the right church. You can't buy it. There is only one way to get more:
Mark 10:15 Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.”
We don't "receive" the kingdom all in one shot. The day I was saved by trusting in Jesus' payment for my sin, I received salvation by asking for it and agreeing with it in my life. But there is MUCH more to the kingdom than salvation. There is a lot God would love to give me. The baptism of the Spirit, wisdom, understanding, insight...Jesus' forming His life in my heart , and an infinite number of things I don't even know to contend for yet. An infinite God will take an infinite amount of time to explore and know. Eternity will NOT be boring! The kingdom of God is full of vast riches there for the asking...there for the contending.
A child has no resources of their own, no concept of the value of what they want and no means to obtain it other than going to the one that has it and requesting it. If I want more of the kingdom, I have to humble myself, and request it from my Father, trusting that He knows how to give good gifts to those who ask. Food to the hungry and living water to the thirsty.
Psalms 43:1-5 Vindicate me, O God, And plead my cause against an ungodly nation; Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man! For You are the God of my strength; Why do You cast me off? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your tabernacle. Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; And on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God. Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.
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