Devotional – Are You Hungry?

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But he answered and said, It is written, Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God. Matthew 4:4

I was extremely hungry
and my stomach was staging a massive protest. How much longer will I have to
wait for my lunch to get here? I wondered. I had ordered my lunch more than an
hour ago and the promised delivery was still not forthcoming. I waited and I
waited, trying without much success, to continue working until it arrived.
Eventually, it did and I was able to satisfy the hunger that I had been
experiencing. 

A few hours later,
starting to feel peckish again, I reached into my lunch bag for my usual
afternoon snack. To my surprise, there was an assortment of snack items that I
had totally forgotten about! I could have quenched the hunger I felt before my
lunch arrived, but my memory had failed me.

That led me to wonder.
How often have we gone hungry, not remembering that God has a feast awaiting us?
How often do we turn a blind eye to the table God has spread for us? His word
says that ‘man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds
from the mouth of God’.  It is the Word of
God that truly sustains us.  Not the fleshly
junk food that we so readily reach for, filled with empty calories that cannot
satisfy.  We remain hungry when God has
provided all the that we need for life and godliness.

The Word is readily
available and within easy reach.  But we
must be intentional. We must seek the Word and consume it until it consumes us.
 We should long for it ‘as the deer pants
for the water’ (Psalm 42:1). As we hunger and thirst after the Word, we will be
filled (Matt 5:6). We will become like trees planted by the rivers of water
(Psalm1:3). As we abide in Him, we will bear fruit because apart from Him we
can do nothing. Having said all of that, I now ask, ‘Are you hungry?’

Prayer

Father, forgive me of
the times when I neglect your word. Help me to hunger and thirst after your
righteousness so that I will be filled. Amen.