A Closer Walk With Jesus – Hunger and Thirst
Merriam Webster Dictionary:
1: a craving or urgent need for food or a specific nutrient
b: an uneasy sensation occasioned by the lack of food
c: a strong desire : CRAVING
Let’s think about what causes us to hunger for something. Remember the fragrance of your favorite dish. Doesn’t just the thought of its fragrance make you begin to feel hungry? For those of us who love fresh homemade bread, doesn’t the thought of its fragrance wafting through the house make you start to hunger for a piece just out of the oven? How about fresh homemade pie? Doesn’t just thinking about it make your mouth start to water?
Now let’s think about a tall glass of cool water on a hot summer day. When it is hot out and we are thirsty, there is nothing better than a big, tall glass of cool water. We can’t even describe how wonderful it tastes to us, and nothing else satisfies quite like that cold water does.
Most women know what it means to have a craving for some strange food when they are expecting a baby. Suddenly they become overwhelmed with the desire for some particular food and nothing else satisfies them. They could eat all the food in the house, but they would still be hungry for that one particular food.
Our desire for Jesus should be just as strong. Nothing else should be able to satisfy us. We desire Jesus and He alone can satisfy our longing.
Matt. 5:6 – Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for God
Jesus said that the one who hungers and thirst for righteousness is blessed [Μακάριος – Makarios, fortunate, well off, Happy]
“They which do hunger and thirst – As the body has its natural appetites of hunger and thirst for the food and drink suited to its nourishment, so has the soul. No being is indestructible or unfailing in its nature but God; no being is independent but him: as the body depends for its nourishment, health, and strength upon the earth, so does the soul upon heaven. Heavenly things cannot support the body; they are not suited to its nature: earthly things cannot support the soul, for the same reason. When the uneasy sensation termed hunger takes place in the stomach, we know we must get food or perish. When the soul is awakened to a tense of its wants, and begins to hunger and thirst after righteousness or holiness, which is its proper food, we know that it must be purified by the Holy Spirit, and be made a partaker of that living bread, or perish everlastingly. Now, as God never inspires a prayer but with a design to answer it, he who hungers and thirsts after the full salvation of God, may depend on being speedily and effectually blessed or satisfied, well-fed, as the word implies. Strong and intense desire after any object has been, both by poets and orators, represented metaphorically by hunger and thirst.” Adam Clarke
How does smelling the fragrance of the fresh baked bread relate to hunger?
How does this relate to our hunger and thirst for Christ?
In what way does the craving of an expecting mother relate to our hunger and thirst for Jesus?
In what way would we relate the satisfying, thirst quenching, of a fresh cold glass of water on a hot day, to our thirsting for the righteousness of God?
John 4:10 – Jesus Living Water
John 7:37-38 – Come to Jesus and drink
Ezekiel 47:8-9 Living water from the temple
Psa. 34:10 – Those who seek the Lord do not want any good thing
Jesus told us that we are blessed when we hunger and thirst for righteousness. But what if we just weren’t hungry or thirsty. What if someone was baking us this wonderful fresh bread, but we just weren’t interested. What if we thought we didn’t need a drink of cold clear water on a hot summer day?
Jesus told the woman at the well that if she asked Him, He would give her living water and she would never thirst again. She immediately says to Him she wants that living water.
Jesus calls to all to come to Him and drink. He fills our souls with His living water and we never have to feel that our soul is dry and thirsty. We just have to ensure that we are continually seeking a close, intimate relationship with Him.
David tells us that even the young lions go hungry but when we seek the Lord, we do not lack any good thing. God is our supply. God is our source.
Ezekiel tells us that during the thousand-year reign of Christ in Jerusalem there will be living water flowing from the temple. It is healing, living water. We have access now to this living water by having a close relationship daily with Jesus.
If we had to work all day and were not able to eat, wouldn’t that cause us to become very hungry?
If we had to work out in the heat of the day and had no access to cool water, wouldn’t we become extremely thirsty?
When we neglect our relationship with Jesus. When we do not spend time daily in pray and reading the Bible, it is like working out in the heat with no access to food or cool water. We starve our souls of the spiritual food that they require. We become spiritually dehydrated. We need to realize that we are neglecting Him and begin to renew our passion for Him. We need to cultivate the spiritual hunger and thirst for the things of God in our life. We must again start to seek a closer walk with Him.
How do you think we seem to God when we lose our desire for Him?
What must we do to assure we are seeking a closer walk with Jesus?
We must remember how wonderful He is. We need to take the time to meditate on who He is. We need to remember His wonderful works of old. Like we remember how wonderful a cool glass of lemonade tastes in the summer. How wonderful a cool gentle breeze feels on an autumn afternoon.
Job_37:14 – Consider the wonderful works of God
Psa 66:5 – Come and see the works of God
Psa_78:7 – Not forget the works of God
Ecc_11:5 – We do not comprehend the works of God
Psa 77:11-12 – I will remember, I will meditate
We need to take the time each day to ponder upon the mighty works of God. We can remember daily that He alone created the earth we live on. We can think about the stars and the planets and the universes, the vastness and beauty of space. As we ponder on these things, we are again caused to be in wonder and awe at the mighty God that created them all.
We also start to recall the wonderful things He has done in this world. Even though man sinned, He did not forsake him. He had Noah build an ark and he brought all the animal into the ark, so God did not destroy all His creation. Through Noah He began again to have fellowship with humanity.
This same Lord provided a ram for Abraham when he would have offered up Isaac on the altar. This same Lord brought Lot and His family out of Sodom and spared their lives when the cities were destroyed for their wickedness.
He brought Israel out of Egypt and through the Red Sea and the Jordon River. He gave them manna, and water from the rock in the wilderness.
We remember that He promised through the prophets that He would send a Savior, a Deliverer, and we see that He did when He sent Jesus into the world. We see His mighty acts when Jesus rose from the dead.
Aren’t we beginning to feel a renewed passion to know this Mighty and Wonderful God?
Doesn’t He start to seem so marvelous that we just must get better acquainted with Him?
Hasn’t His Word begun to seem to us like the cool drink on a warm day and a delicious meal after a hard day of work? We just have to know more of Him. Aren’t we beginning to be refreshed in our spirit and soul?
If the relationship we have with Christ feels like it is becoming too comfortable like an old slipper, we need to stop and remember who our God is and meditate upon the wonder of all He has done. We need to stir up the coals and start the flame burning brightly again.
Psa 63:1- 4 – Early will I seek you, my soul thirst for you
Psa 27:4 – One thing I desire
Exo 33:17-18 – Show me Your Glory
Philip 3:7-9 – Things that were gain, I count as loss
When we look at Moses, David and Paul, we see a common thread running through their lives. Each has just one passion, one great overwhelming desire. They want to know God and behold His glory. There is nothing else that will satisfy the great craving they feel for God. He alone is the only one, the only thing, that can quench their great thirst and fill their great hunger. God alone, nothing else.
For us the desire, the craving should be the same. The more we know of God the more we should desire to know Him. Each revelation of His character should cause us to desire to want to know more of Him.
When we realize just one glimpse of His beauty, might and power, and then we realize that He loves us and longs to fellowship with us. The greater our awe of Him should become. We should understand that there is always something new to learn about Him, more wonders to see in what He does and who He is. We can never get bored knowing Him. Every second we spend with Him should cause us to want to spend more time with Him. Each new day we should be falling in love with Him all over again.
When we speak to others about our wonderful Lord and Savior. Those around us should see in us by the way we look and speak that we have great passion for Him. That we desire Him above all else.
Jesus said in Matt. 5:6 that we are blessed when we hunger and thirst for righteousness. Because when we do, we will be filled. When we desire more of God, when our passion for Him becomes red hot and burns within us. He fills us with His presence and gives us knowledge of Himself through His Word.
Deut. 8:3 – We cannot live by bread alone
Matt. 4:4 – Every Word of God
Luke 21:34 – Pay attention to our life. What is our focus?
Jesus has given us living bread and living water. As we seek to know Him more, we become filled with these. The food of this world will not fill us nor satisfy our souls. We need Jesus.
We need to make sure that we are not becoming filled up with the “junk food” of this life so that we are hungering and thirsting for Him and the things of His kingdom.
If we are not careful, we can be like kids who see a candy or cookie jar and stuff themselves with those things that are not nutritious when there is plenty of good healthy delicious food right there. All they have to do is pick that and not the junk food.
This life can become a “candy” or “cookie” jar, enticing us away from the wonderful things of God. Jesus told us in Luke 21:34, in the discussion with His disciples regarding the end times, that we have to be watchful that we do not become so involved in the indulgences of eating and drinking or “partying” with the crowd and the cares of this life that we lose focus on His soon return.
Matt. 25:1-4 – Don’t be foolish. Make sure we have oil.
We must be on guard that we do not become cold in our desire for Him. If we do, His return will take us unaware, and we will be left behind as the five foolish virgins were who did not take additional oil with them for their lamps.
Our desire to be with Him and to be forever in His presence should continually reignite the flame in our souls. Our passion for Jesus should be as great hunger and thirst for Jesus that nothing else can quinch. It should continually be a bright hot burning flame. It should always be the consuming force in our lives.
We should ask ourselves daily, am I hungering and thirsting for more of Jesus? Do I start my day with Jesus as my first waking thought? Do I meditate on God’s word?
What are some things we can do to keep our desire for a closer walk with Jesus fresh?
How do we repurpose our days to make sure we are spending time with the Lord?
Are we looking at our relationship with Jesus through eternal eyes?
Is drawing closer to Him and knowing Him our greatest desire?