Hunger and thirst

Hunger and thirst are essential to life, without them we would not seek food and drink, we would die.

At the same time we are spiritual people, God breathed into man and he became a living soul, and therefore not only do we have a body to be sustained but a spirit too, we need spiritual food and drink.

Too frequently we eat and drink in the wrong places and find we are not truly satisfied. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life,” and, “If anyone thirsts let them come to me and drink.” Hunger and thirst are desires, intense longings that require satisfying.

How is your hunger and thirst for God? Are you longing for more? Maybe you are going through a season that’s making you hungry and thirsty. The old routines and rituals are not doing it, you are going through the motions – as good as they may be – yet somehow it’s dry, and dreary, there’s no real life, no power…

What you really need is a fresh encounter with God. David said, “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God, when shall I come and appear before God” (Psalm 42:2).

Not another football match, not another shopping trip, not more leisure (not that any of these things in and of themselves are wrong), but it’s God your soul desires – your soul desires and needs God. We were made by Him and for Him, and we have a God shaped void that only He can fill, to quote Blaise Pascal, “What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.”  (Pensées VII(425))

Augustine said something similar many years before, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” and again he says,

“How is it, then, that I seek you, Lord? Since in seeking you, my God, I seek a happy life, let me seek you so that my soul may live, for my body draws life from my soul and my soul draws life from you.” St Augustine, Confessions 10,20: PL 32,791.

Did you notice the connection between body and soul? Today we pamper our bodies in every way, but Augustine says that the focus is in the wrong place for our body draws life from our soul and our soul finds life from God. The first port of call must be our life with God, being in His Presence, knowing and enjoying Him, feeding on His word and filled with His Spirit.

Paul said “let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly,” and “Be filled with the Spirit.”