EXHORTATION
Hunger is defined as a verb to mean to have a strong desire or craving for. A feeling of weakness or discomfort caused by lack of food. A word similar to hunger is “emptiness”.
Do you feel an emptiness within your soul for God? Listen to David as he expresses a deep craving for God in Ps 63:8: My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me
Some thoughts on Hunger
- Hunger is necessary for survival. It’s a signal that you need to eat otherwise you die. In other words, hunger is what keeps us alive. Hunger isn’t taught, it’s an acquired instinct in every living thing that signals the need for food. It’s a way the body makes up for used energy. Without hunger, death is imminent because nothing points you to the need for food. Thus, man will only continue to do other things but eat! Spiritually, hunger is needful for survival. And lack of hunger for God is a sign of sickness which makes you vulnerable. The Laodicean church lacked hunger and God was going to spue them out for their lack of hunger for Him. Spiritual hunger is serious business with God. Rev 3:15-20
- Hunger is a blessing. Those who hunger for God are blessed. Matt 5:3: the poor in spirit speaks about those who are continuously in a state of hunger. The kingdom of heaven belongs to them. The poor are those who are empty; Luke 1:53; he hath filled the hungry with good things but the rich he hath sent away empty; Ps 107:9: for he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness Deut 8:3: he allowed physical hunger to teach them spiritual hunger which was crucial for their survival.
- You are filled with what you’re hungry for. If you hunger for God, you will constantly be filled with Him. We are only addicted to things we crave for and as we feed those desires, our appetite for that things grows. We would then need more and more. You will come to love or lust after what you have a strong craving for!
- Everyone hunger for something but not everyone hungers for God. It’s our hunger that drives us. Every day you wake up, what you crave is what drives you. You chase after your desires hoping to derive satisfaction from them. No one chases after what they do not desire or hunger for! Ps 27:4. Because of David’s hunger for God’s presence, he pursued God daily.
- God always responds to hunger and withdraws when there’s a lack of it. Jer 29:13-14; Hos 6:3-4; SoS 5:2-5. You cannot find God without hunger. When we lack a desire for him, He withdraws. Revelation knowledge belongs to the hungry. Amos 6:1: woe to those who lack of hunger and are complacent. God resists the man who is not hungry for him. James 4:6; Rev 3:15-16. Christianity is impossible without hunger just as life and living are impossible without hunger. Hunger points to the need for food.
Our prayer topic today is to ask God to make us hunger for Him. He’s the physician and He has what you need to make you hungry again. Is 43:19.
You will come with a repentant heart as you ask God to forgive you for filling your souls with things rather than with Him. I turn away from idolatry and I choose to run after You from henceforth.
You will ask God for the blessing of hunger. For Him to suffer/allow you to hunger until you realise that man lives only by the voice of God.
You will pray and ask Him to work within your soul a healthy hunger and thirst for Him as every other craving fades away, giving room for only one thing in you: a hunger for God that can only be satisfied by Him alone.
We all need the help of God as our appetite for Him has been affected by the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. You need Him to fill you with a longing for Him that will drive away the lust for other things.
Please pray with a desire; pray as someone with a deep sense of need because you have a need for Him; pray unto God and bar every distraction. As you pray today, He will visit you with the river of God which is full of water and satisfy your soul with a hunger for Him.
PRAYER: PRAYER FOR A HUNGER FOR GOD
Say the words of the prayer below and then proceed to pray in your understanding and in other tongues as you ask the Lord to put a hunger for Himself in your soul:
My dear heavenly Father, I adore Your holy name
I declare that I love You with all my heart, soul and might
I thank You for Your ever-abiding love and faithfulness towards me
Lord, I ask that You will revive me in this time of shaking. Bring me back to You in truth.
Lord, I have seen my nakedness and I ask You to give me a repentant heart.
I put away all my idols and things I have trusted in and I turn to You with all my heart. Forgive me and return to me with Your mercy.
Revive me again and let Your glory be seen in and through me.
Break every stubbornness and hardness of my heart. Give me a deep conviction of sin, repentance and renewed fear of God.
Lord, heal me from lack of hunger and thirst for You
Heal me from spiritual complacency and lukewarmness
And bless me with a deep hunger and thirst in my soul for You
Work hunger for Your presence deep within my soul
Such that my life will be driven by a desire for Your presence
And I can say like David, one thing have I desired of the Lord and that will I seek after
Work in me to seek after you alone
Work in my soul to follow hard after You alone
Work in my soul to seek You and crave for You as a necessity
Let nothing else matter to me anymore but Your presence
Bless me with hunger so that I will not die
Let me realise my emptiness without Your infilling in my soul
And bring me to a place where my soul pants after You as the hart pants after the water brooks
Draw me oh Lord and I will run after You
I surrender to the workings of the Holy Spirit as I continue to pray in my understanding and in other tongues
To put a deep longing in my soul for his presence
Let my life be driven by the pursuit of the presence of God in Jesus’ name
I need You Lord
Suffer me to hunger until I come to the realisation that I cannot live by bread alone but by the voice of God
Make me uncomfortable and work in me to seek You with all my heart
Until You come and rain righteousness upon me to satisfy the hunger and thirst in my soul
VERSE OF THE DAY: Matt 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
