Hunger Pains

I love food. I think it's bred into southerners to enjoy their meals. Anytime we have a social occasion, the first question is "whose bringing what to eat?" And, of course, the highlight of any good southern meal is the dessert. I blame my mother (who blames her mother) for teaching me that no meal is complete without something sweet at the end. I have a pretty strong sweet tooth, and a special place in my heart for baked goods. We can't live off of them though. They contain what nutritionists call "empty calories"- meaning you get a lot of sugar from them, but not the nutrients or vitamins your body needs to function properly. Not to mention, I can testify from experience, you just don't feel well when sweets are the main course and not the "treat."

Very few of us in the United States can say that we really know what it feels like to be hungry. I mean, we've had to maybe skip a meal somewhere or maybe you have a job like mine where sometimes you just can't eat lunch until 3:00pm. We get hungry then, sure. But in a few hours we eat and our hunger subsides. We don't know what it is to truly be "starving," even though I've made that claim many times!

Imagine though, that you are truly starving. I offer you a large loaf of bread. Instead of taking that, you go and spend the last coins you have left on cotton candy. Are you going to be satisfied after eating that? Certainly not for long. The reality is, we are all spiritually starving without God. We are hungry and thirsty- longing for something to fill us up.

Come, all you who are thirsty,

come to the waters,

and you who have no money,

come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk,

without money and without cost.

Why spend money on what is not bread,

and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,

and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.

Isaiah 55:1-2

God is inviting all of us soul-starved individuals to come and sit at his table and enjoy the "richest of fare." I'm thinking that involves more than just a good dessert, don't you? A meal that us southerners will be talking about for days and weeks to come, because we do that kind of thing. More than that, it's free. Reality is though, we often turn our backs on that and look to what we can buy with our few measly coins- some pretty colored cotton candy. It might taste good, but it's not going to leave us satisfied for long.

God offers us free nourishment for our souls- satisfaction for life. There is a reason Jesus is called the "bread of life." While we view bread now as sort of a side item at meals- in that day and time bread was the staple food. It was literally what people satisfied their hunger with on a day to day basis. So, how do we find satisfaction?

We come, listen, and seek.

First, we have to accept God's invitation and come to the feast. Then, we have to listen to what He tells us.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are my ways your ways,

declares the Lord.

As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9

We will never be able to figure it out on our own. Isaiah spends the next several chapters outlining what God views as keeping the sabbath holy, what He truly desires from us when fasting, how God has a plan to bring all the nations to himself, and how He will judge the wicked. It's obvious that left on our own we are all too apt to keep going back to the cotton candy. It's also obvious from those chapters that God wants as many people at His feast as possible. Even the maimed, outcast and foreign. He desires for us to share pieces of His food with other people in the world, so they will be drawn to His table. When we show others kindness, charity, justice and generosity then we are giving them glimpses of the table that they are also invited to eat at. God made it clear that He wants all nations there with Him eating!

Finally, we have to continue to seek and call on God. Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Isaiah 55:6. Hopefully, the more we sit at the table with God, the more we are going to be drawn back to dine with Him. Hopefully, the more we get of "the richest of fare" the less and less likely we are to turn back to our cotton candy. The more we see God work in our lives, the less likely we are to turn back to our own resources.

Every good meal starts with good ingredients. The best ingredients are fresh and home grown; tomatoes ripe off the vine, peaches straight from the tree. Those fresh ingredients start with seeds carefully planted and tended; watered, weeded, pruned and fertilized. No, I'm not giving you a gardening lesson! Go with me for a moment:

As the rain and snow

come down from heaven,

and do not return to it

without watering the earth

and making it bud and flourish,

so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

so is my word that goes out from my mouth:

It will not return to me empty,

but will accomplish what I desire

and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

Isaiah 55:10-11

God's feast starts with the water of His word. Ladies, we are doing a great thing by committing ourselves to read through the Bible this year. There was so much in the other chapters for today that I just couldn't even get to, but you don't need me to lay it out for you. God's word will not return empty. He will use it to accomplish what He desires, and what He desires is that the world would find satisfaction in Him. What are you hungry for today? Who do you know that is soul- starved? How can we invite them to the feast?

"Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!"

Revelation 19:8