In my last post (the rain is coming), I spoke about this amazing banquet God is preparing and that we need to keep hungry. I want to elaborate on that a bit.

If I’m completely honest, my hunger comes and goes. Sometimes I feel like I am burning with such a hunger for God I can barely do anything else. At other times I am rushing around so busy I struggle to make time for God.

When I was writing about the rain that is coming, I read this verse in Hosea;

Let us acknowledge the Lord;
    let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises,
    he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,
    like the spring rains that water the earth.”

Hosea 6:3

God’s coming is as certain as the sun rising – he will come, and he will come like the rain that waters the earth – like both the winter and spring rains (really the only two types of rain in Israel as you can see from the rainfall graph below). The rain will water the earth. The prophet is stirring us to get ready by getting to know Jesus, learning about him, pressing on into him. To be hungry for him.

Taken from Weather2travel.com

So how can we make ourselves hungry and increase our hunger pangs?

Firstly, just like with our physical hunger, there are things that we do that suppress our appetite. We need to stop doing those things.

There are three things that instantly come to mind when I think about how we can easily keep hunger at bay – physically and spiritually:

Unhealthy snacks

My kids often walk back from school via the shops. Sweets and fizzy drinks are a big lure for one of my boys in particular. If he fills up on junk he is never hungry for dinner. If we fill up on junk, we won’t be hungry for Jesus.

Spiritually these unhealthy snacks are the things we fill up on that aren’t good for us. We spend our time watching trashy TV or playing computer games for hours on end, and unsurprisingly aren’t chomping at the bit to carve out time to spend with Jesus.

The Bible tells us to fill our minds with good things. When we fill our minds with trash we lose our appetite for the things of God.

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

Philippians 4:8

Smoking

Smoking is addictive, and saps our appetite. In the same way our addictions can sap our appetite for God’s presence. Things that are addictive in our lives can vary immensely from person to person, and aren’t confined to smoking, drugs or alcohol. When we can’t live without something in our life, it gains a status above God and acts as an addictive appetite suppressant, diluting our hunger for His presence and His word.

“For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.”

1 John 2:16

Placing things of the world above the things of God in our lives keeps our focus – and our hunger – on those things.

Coffee

Drinking copious amounts of coffee is something I am very guilty of. As long as I have coffee, I can easily get through a working day without a single thing to eat. Many people drink coffee to stay awake so they can get more done. They keep busy and the coffee gives them a caffeine hit which also suppresses their hunger.

In our spiritual lives, keeping super busy also suppresses our hunger. It’s like a caffeine hit to our walk with Jesus.

Now there’s not necessarily anything wrong with the individual things we are doing, apart from when we are choosing them over His presence. Remember Mary and Martha? Both friends of Jesus and dearly loved, and both excited to have him come to their home. Mary sat at Jesus’ feet listening to what he said, but the Bible tells us that Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She complained to Jesus and asked him to tell Mary to help her.

“”Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed – or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” “

Luke 10:41-42

Jesus doesn’t tell Martha that what she is doing is wrong, just that what Mary has chosen is better. Martha is so busy trying to ‘do’ that she has forgotten how to ‘be.’ Are we ‘doing’ too much ‘for’ Jesus at the cost of ‘being’ with Jesus?

I am a busy person and I like being busy. I’m not good with time on my hands. And God has created me with a high capacity for ‘doing.’ But God has also often told me to take a leaf out of Mary’s book. If we aren’t stopping and taking the time to ‘be’ with Jesus, our ‘doing’ will not be as fruitful, however well intentioned.

What do you think would happen if you stopped what you were ‘doing’? If you said no to something and replaced it with time in the secret place with God?

---

So, if we are not suppressing our appetite, how do we increase our hunger? Physically things that increase appetite include exercise, smell, and eating little and often.

Exercise

You’ve heard the phrase ‘working up an appetite.’ For me, swimming is a particularly poignant example. I’m always hungry after swimming, no matter what time of day I swim. So how are we exercising spiritually? Are we stretching our spiritual muscles and stepping out of our comfort zone?

“Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”

Philippians 4:9

If you are at all like me, exercising is a sacrifice. It is hard and uncomfortable, and I would much rather not do it. And yet if I want to stay healthy, I must. So why should spiritual exercise be any different? It requires commitment and perseverance. And yes, being uncomfortable. Praying for your work colleague or giving the waitress a word of knowledge for example. If we don’t practice, our spiritual muscles won’t strengthen.

Increasing how much we eat

Eating little and often might be a phrase you’ve also heard. Yes having weekly, powerful church meetings is fabulous, but how frequently are we also spending time in His word, in worship, in prayer every day? Is our lifestyle one where Jesus is present throughout our day, or only first or last thing, or only when or if we have time?

Increasing the size of our portions can also help as your stomach gets used to eating more it starts to crave more. If we want to be hungry, are we spending more time with God and in His word?

A friend recently pointed out that if Jesus was physically here, he’d like to think we’d be rushing to spend every moment with him, listening to his teaching. But he also said the reality is that we do have his teaching with us every day – whether you have a physical Bible or a mobile app, God’s word is as accessible to us as if Jesus was visiting our town! So let’s eat it up!

Smell

One of the things that can make me the most hungry is when I smell food. I’ll be absolutely fine until I walk past a fish and chip shop and the smell stabs at my stomach! When I’m at an event and the food comes out, the smell increases my desire to feast – how frustrating is it when you have to wait for speeches with the smell of delicious food wafting around the room, infiltrating the senses?!

Food odours have been shown to influence food choices, portion selection and can promote a specific desire to consume certain foods (Ferriday and Brunstrom, 2008). Even when full, the sight or smell of a desirable food can stimulate appetite (Cornell et al., 1989).

What is the aroma we can smell? The aroma carried by people who love and are running after Jesus, or the aroma of the world, of lust, of greed, of self-centredness, of self-sufficiency, of pride? Who are we spending our time around? What aroma is rubbing off on us and what is it making us hungry for?

Whenever I spend time with friends who are on fire for Jesus, my hunger for Jesus intensifies. Their excitement, passion and hunger rubs off on me. But if I spend all my time with people who are living for themselves and think we should be able to do whatever we want whenever we want, it is the desire to do whatever I want that begins to rub off on me.

One of my children recently told me that they had felt God challenging them about the language they were using around their friends. Swearing isn’t allowed in our home and the kids have never really sworn in my hearing – even their school friends have mostly respected my ‘rule.’ But my son had realised that he behaved differently at school, and God was telling him to stop. The environment he was spending time in had rubbed off on him without him noticing, and whilst he had enough awareness and control over it to prevent it spilling into the home, he had slipped into the habit whenever he was around people who did swear easily. But once he made a conscious effort to stop, he didn’t cut off any friendships but he did alter the balance of time he was spending with different friends. His school friends noticed his change of language and asked him about it, and in turn reduced the amount of bad language they used in his hearing.

The people we spend time with rub off on us. Are you making sure you are spending time with people passionate about Jesus, people who inspire you to step out of your comfort zone, to exercise your spiritual gifts, to increase your hunger?

---

There are probably plenty more examples of things we should stop doing and things we should start doing or do more of if we are to increase our hunger.

God is coming. It’s as certain as the sun rising each day. He promises to come like the rain that waters the earth – which refreshes and feeds the earth and produces fruit.

How are we getting ready? Are we hungry to know God more? Are we feeding our hunger? Or will we be too full of other things for what God has for us?