HUNGER AND THIRST-DIVINE DISCONTENTS

      There are very few of us who have actually felt the deep, gnawing pangs and the dry, stomach-wrenching desire of real hunger and thirst. Prisoners of war, those lost at sea and the unforgiving wilderness, and the ones around the world who go to sleep each night without nourishment, day after day, can tell us about the realities of hunger and thirst. We may have missed a meal, or worked too long on a hot day without a drink, feeling the slight effects of deprivation, but even at that, only a short-lived taste of what it means to be really hungry and thirsty.

      Scripture speaks to us about spiritual hunger and thirst. I believe that at the very moment of creation, God placed within the heart and soul of human beings an insatiable desire to know him intimately and to imitate him absolutely. We find that even the presence of sin and the separation from God that sin brings, does not quench our hunger and thirst for restoration into the person God intends for us to be. There is a drawing toward God, even if we cannot identify the source, as God.

      Perhaps, this gift of the desire to know God more fully is the greatest gift that God could have given us. It is a divine gift of grace that allows us to see our need for forgiveness and a changed life. It is God’s intention that the longing for intimacy with him should intensify the longer we walk with him. The more we have of God, the more we want.

      The writers of the psalms are very clear as to the direction in which our desires should be focused. Psalm 84:2 tells us, “My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord; My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” And yet another Psalm 119:145 makes this plea to God, “I cry out with my whole heart; Hear me, O Lord.” Jesus, in Matthew 5:6, even pronounces a blessing on those who hunger and thirst after God’s righteousness.

      This desire for the presence of God, his life changing holiness of daily living, is not limited only to personal experience. God can give us a desire to look around our churches, families, workplaces, schools, and communities for those who need the bread of life and living water. The needs are great, the harvest is ready, yet, so many times the workers are few.

      Too many times, we are content to feed our own souls, sit comfortably in our pews, with only an occasional thought about the spiritual condition of our brothers and sisters within and outside the walls of our churches. It may be time that we ask God to make us uncomfortable, to show us the places in our communities that cause him discontent, and to give us a vision to make things right in a world that has gone so wrong. Maybe we should ask God to identify to us the things that cause him “divine discontent” so that we can share those things with him.

      Are we hungering and thirsting after personal righteousness? And have we turned our attention to the hunger and thirst that others may have? Are there concerns in our community that cause us “divine discontent,” things we can help change? Let us cry out with all our heart to the living God.

Rev Tim McConnell Long’s Chapel UMC August 25, 2013