What Are You Hungry For?
Sometimes you’re out with the family and you can’t make it home for a meal, but making the decision about where to go and what to eat isn’t always easy. You’ve got to eat somewhere, and so you ask your family, “What are you hungry for?”
Perhaps it’s a nicer occasion. You’re taking your wife on a date, or going to eat with a special friend. And so you ask, “What are you hungry for?”
Or maybe it’s your turn to prepare dinner at home and just can’t think of what to cook, so you ask the family, “What are you hungry for?”
“What are you hungry for?” is an important question in other aspects of life as well. What are you hungry for? What are your deepest desires? What is more important to you than anything else? It’s important to know, because your answer to that question will determine all the choices you make in life.
Some people hunger for attention, so they do things to draw attention to themselves. Sometimes those things are good and sometimes they’re not. Some people hunger for approval, so they do what they think other people want them to do. Some people hunger for status, so they try to position themselves above others. Some people hunger for power, so they try to control others. Some people hunger for luxury, so they pour tremendous energy into either accumulating wealth or piling up debt.
Then there are hungers that can be channeled more positively. Some people hunger for relationships, so they invest their lives in people. Some people hunger for freedom, so they break free from whatever is enslaving them. Some people hunger for healing, so they call on the friends, family, and even strangers to pray for it. Some people hunger for peace, so they become peacemakers. Some people hunger for forgiveness, so they grant it freely to others.
What are you hungry for? Some hungers are difficult to satisfy. If you’re hungry for salt, you can keep eating popcorn and you’re probably not going to feel satisfied. Sick, maybe, but not satisfied. Some hungers, by their very nature, cannot be satisfied. Those whose hunger for alcohol or drugs or pornography can never be satisfied by those things. The only way they can be satisfied is to desire what is good and healthy and to pursue it.
Jesus wants to satisfy our hunger. Sometimes, to prove his ability to do that, he satisfies some of our “lesser hungers” – hungers that are real, but are not on the level of “ultimate desire.” But what Jesus really wants is for us to hunger for Him, and he longs deeply to satisfy that desire.
Read John 6:1-40.
Jesus is the only one who can truly satisfy us. We must keep looking to the Son and keep believing in him, so that we will keep having the guarantee of eternal life. It’s not a matter of performing a list of religious duties, but of making Jesus our deepest desire, our greatest hunger. And he promises that if wehunger for him, we will be satisfied. He will not send us away hungry.
