This is one of my favorite sights in the whole world.
My brother, that is. Not the rolls, ice cream, frozen peaches and chopped chives crammed at the top of the freezer there. (My apologies. I make myself vulnerable posting a picture of the freezer.)
That's right. It's my brother . . . looking in the fridge, that makes me smile.
Stay around a half hour longer and he'll be doing it again.
Peek in the kitchen 20 minutes after that, and there'll he be: eyeing the shelves from top to bottom. Seriously, surfing the refrigerator seems to be a built-in habit of his! Doesn't really matter if he's hungry, if we had lunch all of 7.2 minutes ago, or if he's already eaten the last of the pizza, the chicken, the whole stash of apple fritters and animal crackers; the fridge and he just need to connect at various times throughout the day.
I've been thinking recently about those who hunger after the Word of God. How does someone do that? A desire for reading the Bible doesn't always come naturally, and often doesn't stay naturally. Unless we're exceptionally disciplined, as a typical way of life we find time to do what we want to do, and sometimes those things, though they may be profitable, replace what really needs to be done. If we are to be powerful Christians, we NEED to be reading the Scriptures faithfully; we NEED to maintain a faithful prayer life. These are proven truths (if we want power as a Christian, we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and if we want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, we must pray for it [Luke 11:11-13 ; Acts1:8]). But what if we don't want to read the Bible? How do we make ourselves desire the Word of God? How do we thirst after righteousness?
The first thing that came to my mind was, "Read it". It would be strange to crave for what we don't know exists and to thirst for things we've never tasted. I believe the more we read the Word of God, the more we will desire the Word of God. The more we pray, the more we will eagerly look forward to prayer.
Most babies aren't born with a craving for vegetables! They grow in appreciation for a broader variety of food as their mother introduces it to them little by little. We, too, need to develop an appetite for spiritual food by faithfully feeding ourselves on it!
How foolish it would be to pray for a desire for the Scriptures, but then not in conjunction read them. Read the Bible when you don't feel like it. Read it when you do. Read it when your busy. Read it when you're bored. Come back to it again and again, like you were my brother and it was the fridge! Meditate on it. Study it. Search it. If you don't desire it now, soon you will.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness:
for they shall be filled.
Matthew 5:6
Labels: SCRIPTURE
I've been thinking recently about those who hunger after the Word of God. How does someone do that? A desire for reading the Bible doesn't always come naturally, and often doesn't stay naturally. Unless we're exceptionally disciplined, as a typical way of life we find time to do what we want to do, and sometimes those things, though they may be profitable, replace what really needs to be done. If we are to be powerful Christians, we NEED to be reading the Scriptures faithfully; we NEED to maintain a faithful prayer life. These are proven truths (if we want power as a Christian, we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and if we want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, we must pray for it [Luke 11:11-13 ; Acts1:8]). But what if we don't want to read the Bible? How do we make ourselves desire the Word of God? How do we thirst after righteousness?