What Does it Mean to Hunger for God? (An adaptation from Hungry for God by Margaret Feinberg)
I don’t know anything about real hunger. Lord knows that when I get a craving for a snack I just get some nuts or something, and BAM, the hunger is gone. Yet, when I stop and think about it, billions suffer in starvation and poverty everyday, while I just give in to my so called hunger cravings. It’s no wonder America is an obese country, we are filling our hunger with the wrong nutrition.
Yet hunger is woven into the fabric of our humanness—no matter where you live. Appetite is a primitive desire that doesn’t discriminate. Every human has felt its pangs. Without an appetite, we slip into starvation and even death. Hunger is the gnawing reminder that in order to have strength, we must have sustenance.
Which raises the question… If physical hunger is a set of feelings focused around the stomach that lead a person to search for food, then our spiritual hunger is a set of experiences or longings which should compel us to search for God. Just as our body needs food to survive, our spirit needs God to thrive. A divine appetite drives us to pursue a vibrant relationship with God—one in which we find my sustenance and strength.
Unlike physical hunger, which can be satiated by food, our spiritual appetites can only be quelled by God. But is it possible to dine on an intangible being? How do we feast upon something we cannot see, touch, or taste? Over the last several years, Margaret has learned that God’s voice is the only entrée that can nourish our ethereal cravings. Hearing and experiencing, rather than eating, assuages spiritual hunger.
The moments in her life when she’s been the most spiritually hungry and the most spiritually satiated share a common trait: God’s voice. Her spiritual hunger grumbles loudest when she feel furthest from God. Though she clings to the mental assertion that God is everywhere and he promises to never leave nor forsake, she’s encountered days, weeks, and months, where she still wonder, Where are you, God?
Like Margaret, I long for a single word to appease my spiritual belly. When God finally breaks the silence, the sound of his voice is spiritual nourishment, his voice a banquet for my soul—every syllable a tasty morsel, every expression flavored with love.
Longing to know him.
Longing to experience him.
Longing to hear him.
Is that what it means to hunger for God?
You can learn more about Hungry for God at http://mar.cta.gs/00z. Become a follower of Margaret Feinberg on Twitter www.twitter.com/mafeinbergor become a Fan on Facebook.
