Starving at the Banquet

The human body is amazing.  When it has a need, it lets us know.  When it needs fuel, it creates pain in the form of hunger.  We feel hunger pangs in our stomach, and even though we aren’t starving to death, we know it is time for a meal.  This is a normal and healthy occurrence.  We can ignore the body’s prompt to eat and the pain of hunger will subside at least until it is time for another meal, and then the pain returns.  If we ignore the hunger pangs long enough, starvation sets in. 

When the body is starving, it begins to draw from reserves it has stashed away.  Short term reserves are held in the liver.  Longer term reserves are held in fat cells.  Fat cells give up their stores a little at a time, and do so based on a value system.  The fat around the kidneys is given up later than the fat around our chest or abdomen because it is essential to the function of the kidney.  As starvation continues the sense of hunger builds.  Your mind becomes consumed with food.  But then something different happens.  Once all the reserves are used up, hunger ceases.  Apathy replaces hunger.  Even if food becomes available, the starving body has no interest in it.  It must be fed intravenously or force fed drops at a time.  Death comes quietly, without the body feeling hunger. 

Our spiritual bodies are similar.  When we are spiritually healthy, we have a hunger for the Lord.  We have a need to be spiritually fed, recognize that hunger and take steps to be fed.  We strive to be in the Word daily, and to meditate on the things of God.  When this hunger is denied, spiritual starvation can set in.  We begin by using up our reserves.  The Holy Spirit calls scripture to our memory, and we may take in small morsels by reading a short devotional or going to church.  But eventually apathy sets in.  Our hunger ceases.  We are still in need of being fed, but we don’t recognize the need because we cease to feel the pain.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”  Matt. 5:6

This condition doesn’t need to be permanent.  Through obedience and discipline, I can feed my spirit on a regular basis whether it feels hunger or not.  When we do this, an amazing thing happens:  hunger returns.  The appetite is awakened, and begins to function normally again. 

“Taste and see that the Lord is good…” Psalm 34:8

Taste and see. The Word of God longs to dwell richly in you. Instead we often ration out small amounts of his Word, as if we could use it up by reading too much. Such silliness. God has given us the means to know him more. We can never know him fully and yet we hold back, choosing to wade in an ocean. The only thing holding us back from a deeper relationship with him is us.

Open your Bible today. Find out what you don’t know, what you are missing. Drink deep. Satisfy that hunger before it disappears. Discover the banquet that waits for you.