Who's Hungry?

By
Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
- John 6:35 NIV - 

Image result for neon sign hungry


Have you ever forgotten your lunch at school, or not packed snacks to get through the day? I often make the mistake of not packing snacks or lunch with me when I go to class, and I always end up being that person in the back of the class that sounds like I have a small monster growling from my stomach. I also notice that when I get hungry, I cannot focus as well. I don't know if it's because I'm day dreaming about the pizza I want to eat later, or just because my brain is running on empty and is giving up but I can never focus when I am hungry. There is something about feeling like there is nothing in your stomach that offsets your entire day.

In this verse from John, Jesus is telling everyone around him that whoever believes in Him will never go hungry, or be thirsty. Can you imagine never being hungry or thirsty? This perpetual state of satisfaction sounds like it would make life a lot more convenient. You would save a lot of money not having to buy food, eating out, trying to eat healthy, and everything else that comes with needing food. Of course, never being physically hungry is not exactly what Jesus was talking about here.

Jesus is talking about a different kind of hunger. This emotional or mental hunger that we get inside when we feel like something is missing. We try to satisfy this hunger with all sorts of things in our lives. Maybe we try to fill that hole with our achievements in school or clubs. I know that I have often tried to fill this hunger with other people that come in and out of my life. Whatever it is that we try and use to satisfy this yearning, we will always end up hungry. However, in this verse from John, Jesus is telling us that He alone makes us complete and full. When we turn to Him to fill the void inside of ourselves, He embraces us and makes us whole.

Everyone feels alone, empty, and hungry for something at times. God is the ultimate source of constant, never-ending, sustenance for our hunger. Let God be what you turn to when you are hungry for more in life. Let God be the one to make you feel full.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Light as a Feather

By
Image
 " And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them,  “If anyone would come after me, let him  deny himself and  take up his cross and follow me.  For  whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake  and the gospel's will save it.     For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?     For  what can a man give in return for his soul? " Mark 8:34-37   (ESV) There is a lot packed in these four verses from Mark. What stands out to me most through all this talk about losing or gaining our lives and our souls, is in verse 34 where we are told to “take up your cross”. This is an instruction I have heard many times through the church, but what does it mean to take up your cross? To me, taking up our cross is choosing to be a Christian everyday. The conscious effort to treat people a certain way, to rely on God, and to think about Him in our actions, decisions, and thoughts. It’s choos
Read more

God's Overlook

By
Image
“Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these ‘nobodies’ to expose the hollow pretensions of the ‘somebodies’? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ.” - 1 Corinthians 1:27-30 The Message - As a person of smaller stature, I hate being overlooked. Some might argue that much of who I am is to stand out and be noticed. Yet no matter how great I think I am, the apostle Paul here reminds us that God has preferential consideration for those who are ‘nobody.’ God uses people who are lost, broken, and left out. Even if we are ‘somebody’ and think we have it all together, when we come before God we must recognize that our plans are silly foolishness compared to the work that God has for us. The trick of course is to not hate o
Read more

Light in the Darkness

By
Image
 “Arise! Shine! Your light has come; the Lord’s glory has shone upon you. Though darkness covers the earth and gloom the nations, the Lord will shine upon you; God’s glory will appear over you.” - Isaiah 60:1-2 CEB - Darkness is a real thing. Not only as we get to the winter months where it might be dark before you get home from your afternoon or evening activities, but we know darkness on a personal level sometimes.  Darkness is that voice in us that makes us doubt ourselves. Darkness is that feeling that no one else knows what you’re going through. Darkness is cold isolation and separation.  Yet we know through the birth of Christ that God’s light breaks in upon us. The love of God that comes in Jesus finds us just as we are, just where we are. God’s love warms up the coldest isolation and lets us see ourselves for the beautiful creation God made us to be. One of my favorite images is the sharing of the Christ candle we do at our Christmas Eve services.  Something a
Read more