It is up to you to determine your hunger for God. So, how can you make sure you stay stirred up, hungry and passionate for God?
Proverbs 19:15 says,
Slothfulness casts one into a deep sleep, and the idle person shall suffer hunger. (AMP)
Hebrews 6:12 also warns about slothfulness –
That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. (KJV)
And Hebrews 6:12 in Amplified Translation (AMP):
In order that you may not grow disinterested and become [spiritual] sluggards, but imitators, behaving as do those who through faith (by their leaning of the entire personality on God in Christ in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness) and by practice of patient endurance and waiting are [now] inheriting the promises.
An important thing to note – slothfulness and laziness are not the same thing. You can be doing a lot, even a lot for God, and still be slothful.
According to Rick Renner’s book, Sparkling Gems:
…“slothful” doesn’t have anything to do with laziness! It comes from the Greek word nothros and describes something that is dull, monotonous, or unexciting, something that is slow and sluggish; or something that has lost its speed or momentum.
Hebrews 6:12 speaks of someone who is moving, but barely. Someone who has lost the fire, passion, and hunger for serving and loving God.
It is an amazing thing that the more we consume of God, the closer we draw to Him, the more time we spend in His Word, the more we want! Our contentment in God also increases. Proverbs 19:15 says that those who let their passion and hunger wane will suffer hunger. This means that their appetites will be insatiable. They look for ways to fill themselves from the world, and never get enough, never get the thing they were truly designed to consume.
What steals hunger, making us slow and sluggish? Physically, when someone is upset, stressed out, or facing a difficult decision, they tend to eat comfort food (deep-fried-chocolate, anyone?), or eat little to nothing. Through bad habits, or wrong thinking about ourselves, we can also fall into these unhealthy eating habits. Let’s look at these two scenarios, and find spiritual correlations.
When we choose to turn away from the Word of God during difficult times, and instead turn to ‘Dr. Latest & Greatest,’ friends who will tell you what you want to hear, or media that will ‘comfort’ us (Pride & Prejudice marathon, anyone?), and get our minds off the problem, we are essentially eating spiritual junk food. If you feed your body junk food long enough you will feel horrible! You won’t want to exercise, or do much of anything, as your body tries to deal with the overload of unhealthy foods.
Your spirit was created to interact intimately with God. When you turn away from the Word to find comfort elsewhere in difficult times, you are dulling your spiritual senses to God, the Holy Spirit, and the Word. Your ‘taste buds’ will change, and eventually, you will not have any appetite or hunger for God. God does not leave you. God does not stop speaking to you. But your ability to sense His presence or hear His voice will diminish, as our hearts and heads are filled with the images and voices of the world.
Another scenario, is that you might not be filling up on junk food, but you have just stopped eating. Also bad. Jesus declares that,
It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but every word that comes from the mouth of God. John 4:4 (quoting Deuteronomy 8:3)
Our source of life, peace and joy comes from meditation on, learning, studying, and refusing to let go of the Word! The more of the Word we ingest, the more our appetite grows!
I try to view food for my body as fuel. When I eat the right things, fueling my body well, the result is strength and health. When I do not eat anything, I become weak, lethargic, and slothful. It is important to your spiritual strength and health to view the Word of God as fuel for your life!
Physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually we are all feeding on something every day. Make sure that:
- you think on things above, not things below
- set your mind on Christ
- let go of bitterness and anger
- forgive and forgive and forgive
- keep your emotions in check, let your spirit rule, not your emotions
- feed on the word of God
- make a habit of spending time with God everyday
What practical steps and habits to you have in your daily routine to help you stay hungry for God?
Thanks for reading, and as always – I would love to hear your thoughts,
Annie
