I have never been truly hungry, not desperately so. We often hear, "I'm starving," but this is just an hyperbolic cliche that means, "My body is telling me that it's time to eat." That kind of hunger is as natural as breathing, the brain's signal to the body to properly care for itself. Perhaps the most familiar example of this is the crying child who longs for his mother's milk. Every child is born hungry, and perpetually so for the rest of its life.
What is true in the flesh is also true in the spirit; the newborn infant soul, as the suckling babe, cries out for the milk of God's word, and the mature man hungers perpetually for his meat. Those who have been born again unto spiritual life have tasted the Lord and seen that He is good; sweeter to them than the honeycomb is His word; like hummingbirds to flowers, they flit their wings to the nectar.
But what of those with little or no spiritual appetite, strangers to heaven's hunger pangs? Why, they must either be sick or dead! Loss of appetite is a sure sign of disease or lifelessness. Consistent absence from God's House, careless avoidance of His supper, casual acquaintance with His word, and cavalier rejection of His bounteous graces mark a soul wayward or a soul unborn. Every spiritual babe cries out for Sarah's milk, and every sheep follows the Good Shepherd to green pastures. Misguided goats have a bad appetite (they'll eat anything), sick men have little appetite, and dead men have no appetite at all.
What is true in the flesh is also true in the spirit; the newborn infant soul, as the suckling babe, cries out for the milk of God's word, and the mature man hungers perpetually for his meat. Those who have been born again unto spiritual life have tasted the Lord and seen that He is good; sweeter to them than the honeycomb is His word; like hummingbirds to flowers, they flit their wings to the nectar.
But what of those with little or no spiritual appetite, strangers to heaven's hunger pangs? Why, they must either be sick or dead! Loss of appetite is a sure sign of disease or lifelessness. Consistent absence from God's House, careless avoidance of His supper, casual acquaintance with His word, and cavalier rejection of His bounteous graces mark a soul wayward or a soul unborn. Every spiritual babe cries out for Sarah's milk, and every sheep follows the Good Shepherd to green pastures. Misguided goats have a bad appetite (they'll eat anything), sick men have little appetite, and dead men have no appetite at all.
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Just this week I had lunch with a client known only to me by his resume and a few words from others. Imperial College grad (UK's MIT) with distinction; accomplished; direct, engaging and forthright.
As I asked him to explain to me a particular type of oil recovery method, he commented that some reservoirs behaved in this way or that because "that is the way God made them." Immediately, I am impressed and wondering if he mentions God in jest or if he might know Him, since he spoke as if he did. Being that he is a scientist who studies the same rocks to a very specific degree that many feel are the products of something other than God, I'm intrigued even more.
Eventually, we both start putting two and two together and end up speaking for the final 30 minutes of our meeting about the Lord, how we were saved, grace, and the very essence of this post--how God changes the desires of a saved man's heart.
The effect of eating the right foods at an appropriate amount, as my new friend so subtly reminded me, should show. How ashamed I am when having desired and tasted the finest and when assuming to be in the company of those with lesser tastes, I cater to their appetites rather than show forth the effect of my own.
Point: Even a subtle word or phrase in conversations with others reveals much about the desires of our heart.