In total dependency upon God (poor in spirit), I mourn my tendency to rely on the self (those who mourn), and receive life as God allows it to come to me (the meek), and I long, deeply desire, and hunger and thirst to live rightly with God and people (hunger and thirst).
God, who loves His creation, provides food to satisfy the hunger and water to quench thirst.
In Creation (Genesis 2:8, 9)
8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
In the Exodus (Deuteronomy 6:10-12)
10 “And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, 12 then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
In the deepest longings of the soul (John 4:12-15)
Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.[b] The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
In the coming kingdom (Revelation 7:15-17)
“Therefore they are before the throne of God,
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
the sun shall not strike them,
nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of living water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Hunger and thirst speak to the expansive physical and spiritual lack in our lives that can only be satisfied by God. Psalm 42:1, 2
As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
Quench your hunger and thirst with anything or anyone other than God and you find yourself more famished and dehydrated than ever before.
God invites us to place our physical hunger and thirst under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
- How many terrible and sinful decisions were made by people in the Bible because of food and beverage? (Adam and Eve, Esau, Israel, etc.)
- Imagine the feeling when all of your hunger and thirst is under the Lordship of Jesus?
We are also invited to find spiritual nourishment for our hungry and thirsty souls in Jesus.
- What has turning to “spiritual junk food” cost you?
- What joy, fulfillment, and delight has turning to God brought to our lives? Psalm 34:8
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
Suggestions for developing an Appetite for God from 1 Peter 2:1-3
- Pray for the grace to have a God pleasing appetite and for His Spirit to empower you.
- Cut off all access to the fulfillment of anti-God appetites. I Peter 2:1
- Long for pure spiritual food. 1 Peter 2:2
- Long to grow up into salvation. 1 Peter 2:2
- Taste that the Lord is good. 1 Peter 2:3
“Lord, will you shape my deepest longings? May I long for You, the King, to be in your kingdom in my heart and the world. In my total dependence upon you, may you produce righteousness in me.”