GodSprings - 11 June, 2016

Is My Hunger for God Real?

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)

Speaker Mike Benson tells how one night, as his family was finishing dinner, his eight-year-old daughter left six green beans on her plate. She normally ate her veggies, and Mike did not usually allow this sort of thing to bother him, but this night he was irked and said to her, "Eat your green beans."

She replied, "Dad, I'm full to the top."

"You won't pop," he responded.

"Yes, I will pop!" she said.

"Risk it!" he said. "It will be okay."

"Dad, I could not eat another bite."

Mike knew that night they were having her favorite dessert, pumpkin pie squares. So he asked, "How would you like a double helping of pumpkin pie squares with two dollops of whipped cream on top?"

"That sounds great!" she responded as she pushed her plate back, ready for dessert.

"How can you have room for a double helping of pumpkin pie squares with two dollops of whipped cream, and not have room for six measly green beans?"

She stood up tall out of her chair and pointing to her belly said, "This is my vegetable stomach. This is my meat stomach. They are both full. Here is my dessert stomach. It is empty. I am ready for dessert!"

This illustration beautifully illustrates ‘what we eat reveals what we hunger for’.

Jesus had just fed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two small fish. The word was spreading, the crowd was growing, and Jesus was preparing to speak. As everyone converged upon the small sea town of Capernaum, Jesus seized the opportunity to speak about what really mattered in life.

He would give a sermon that day that not only was custom made for His audience, but also would be timeless enough to speak to every subsequent generation. And the turning point of His message would be the statement, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”. Jesus knew this would get everyone’s attention. After all, He had just filled their stomachs, and now He wanted to fill their souls.

Humankind is born with a natural hunger for God, and nothing else will satisfy that hunger. Only Jesus Christ is able to provide the bread of life that fulfills the inmost hunger and deepest cravings within the heart and soul of humanity. Jesus challenged the crowd that day to look past the carnal and think for a moment about the eternal.

Jesus knew that the crowd really was only there because they were looking for another free meal. Most of the people there that day were concerned only all about what Jesus could do for them. So, Jesus changed the menu and said that this life is more than food, more than physical passions, and more than the pursuit of the short-term pleasures of this world. In other words, “Stop wasting so much time thinking about all the things that won’t last, that won’t make you happy, and that will never satisfy your soul, and start thinking about what really matters and what really satisfies: The Bread of Life” (which is Jesus).

After Jesus finished this sermon, most of the people turned and walked away from Him, never to follow again. These fickle, fair-weather followers left Jesus after they got what they wanted from Him. John’s Gospel provides this detail: “Then Jesus gave the Twelve their chance: ‘Do you also want to leave?’ (John 6:67).

This presses us to ask ourselves the same thing. Are we seeking God so that He may fill our stomachs, pay our bills, help us clear our exams, and give us new clothes to wear?

Do I really have a hunger for God?