What Are You Hungry For?

Here's a word that we don't hear too much anymore: whet. When you look it up online, the "archaic" definition is "a thing that stimulates appetite or desire." When my wife is cooking one of her epic meals, there is an aroma that permeates our home. That aroma whets my appetite for whatever it is she is cooking. I begin to anticipate how incredibly delicious the meal will be. And I am never disappointed.

Proverbs 15:14 says "The discerning heart seeks knowledge, but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly." (NIV) Eugene Peterson says it like this in his paraphrase, The Message, "An intelligent person is always eager to take in more truth; fools feed on fast-food fads and fancies."

I will confess that I am far from where I desire to be in my knowledge of the Lord. That recognized distance is part of what motivates me to go deeper with God through prayer and study of scripture. In fact, the more time I spend with God and the more I dig into his Word, the more my appetite for what God desires to give me through those spiritual disciplines grows.

It's like anything else with which we fill our lives: time in the gym, video games, books, addictions, etc. As we continue to engage in these things, our desire for them increases. We want more of what they have to offer. But in the grand picture of God's righteousness, what value do these things ultimately have? Sure, being in the gym helps to keep us healthy, but if it becomes the only thing that whets our appetite, then are we consuming what God would have for us? I can't say many good things about video games, but just like any other form of entertainment, in small doses and with purity, these things are not always harmful. Unless they become our emphasis of worship. Unless they consume our time.

The heart that discerns through the power of the Holy Spirit will desire the knowledge of God. You will hunger and thirst for righteousness. You will crave the things of God. But a heart that feeds on folly - things of little or no significance - is a foolish heart. It is a misplaced worship. It is idolatry.

The Proverbs teach that if we desire wisdom, we have to seek it out. If we desire knowledge, we must look for it. The man or woman who chooses to follow Christ cannot live both as a fool, chasing folly and the things of this world, and live as an obedient disciple of Jesus Christ.

Choose today who you are going to serve. Let your appetite be for the things of God and not foolish things. You will never be disappointed if you eat at the table of fellowship with him.

Comments

Rock 'Em Sock 'Em

I did not grow up throwing punches with schoolmates or with siblings. I did not experience violence in my home as a child. I was never encouraged to throw the first punch, or any punch for that matter. My memories of physical altercations with another person are limited to one specific instance from my junior high years, and the result of my choosing to resort to throwing a punch was not entirely positive. Yes, I did "solve" my problem on one hand, but I created new problems on the other. There is certainly a culture that exists in our world that promotes violence as the answer to solving problems. I have a 5 and 7 year old - believe me, some people think that hitting is the only way to fix something. But outside of child's play and sibling bickering, there is a much more damaging culture that promotes "fixing" whatever problem one might have by exerting physical prowess or at least the threat of exertion. It is not limited to one section of culture or even so...

The Captivity of Fear

Fear holds you captive. By this, I mean that when we are afraid, it holds us in a restricted position. What we could have possibly done, we can do no longer, or at least not to the original potential. My wife sometimes shares a story of fear that she has related to the abnormally large cockroaches that we would sometimes encounter when we lived in Hawaii. Truthfully, they were water bugs, but their similarity to a cockroach was remarkable, especially in a dimly lit situation. On one occasion, a water bug had taken up residence in a door frame that she needed to pass through, but the mere fact that it was in that door frame was nearly enough to keep her from going through. She eventually mustered up the gumption and ran through the door. Her fear nearly kept her from doing what she needed to do, even though that particular task was not necessarily a noble one. In comparison, the prophet Jeremiah was given a task by God to warn Israel of the coming judgment of God. The judgment was roote...

Hurt People Hurt People

I recently heard this familiar phrase. It was one that I have heard before, but it had been some time. When I heard it, I nodded my head in agreement as I processed all that this meant. People who get hurt, for any number of reasons, are inclined to then go and hurt someone else. If you say or do something that causes another person to hurt, then there is a high probability - according to this saying - that they are going to go and do the same to someone else. The more I thought about this phrase over the course of the week, the more I came to realize how it has no place inside the Kingdom mindset or in the life of a Christian. It is certainly true that all of us are subject to being hurt at times in our lives. This hurt comes through the insensitivity of others, through the direct persecution of others, and it often comes through the actions of others that were never meant to harm at all. In some cases, perhaps, the actions of others were meant to help - either your situation or ...

Just Another Blog

Search This Blog