Pray For Hunger

Pray For Hunger

by Francis Frangipane www.frangipane.org

Today many Christians have lost their hunger for God. Instead of coming into the Lord's presence hungry for more of His fullness, our thoughts are gathered to worldly concerns and fleshly distractions. At best, we are merely curious about spiritual realities, but not truly hungry.
Let me tell you a story that illustrates what I mean. We have a little a little dog named Sophie. Sophie loves people food. To her, eating people food is the culinary equivalent of entering the Kingdom of God. She loves our food. She even has a Bible verse that she claims in faith: "Even the dogs get the crumbs" (Matt 15:27).
When my wife and I share a meal, Sophie will sit at our feet, squint her eyes, and stare at us (she thinks squinting makes her cuter). Any food that falls to the floor instantly vanishes into her mouth. (We haven’t had to sweep the kitchen floor in eight years.) Frankly, she is always hungry for our food.
We also have a small fenced-in yard outside our porch where Sophie plays. The fence surrounds the area, but there are gaps where the wood pickets don't quite reach to the ground. If Sophie wanted, she actually could squeeze under the fence and get out, but she normally has no reason to try. Occasionally she will get curious and go as far as the gate, but she doesn't leave the yard.
One day, though, my wife decided to feed a few slices of stale bread to the birds, which happen to nest on a tree on the other side of the fence. When Sophie went out an hour later, she immediately noticed a human food smell in the air, which she tracked to the bread. In less than a heartbeat she found a little gap under the picket fence, squeezed herself to the ground, and then shimmied through the fence to the bread on the other side. It was gone in less than a minute.
My point is this: hunger will take you where mere curiosity would never go.
My friend, God is looking for hungry people. He is seeking people who are seeking Him. Indeed, He has bread from Heaven for us, and it is eternally satisfying. We cannot afford to settle into the routine of a fenced-in life, not when God has magnificent realities awaiting. Let us, therefore, follow our hunger into the presence of God.