He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate – bringing forth food from the earth:
wine that gladdens human hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts.  Psalm 104:14-15

I have to admit my hunger exceeds my intake. I’m always wanting more. I’m never fully satisfied. I’m discontent with my diet. I have an emptiness that’s never satiated. And I’m tired of surviving on food that’s sometimes tasteless and bland. Yes, I’m hungry for more. I want to feast at a banquet table. I want to eat the finest fare. And I want to enjoy the very best of gastronomic delights.

That’s not to say that I don’t appreciate my wife’s cooking. She’s an excellent cook. The problem isn’t in the kitchen… It’s in the church! We seem to be content with crumbs.

We’re prepared to dine on yesteryear’s diet. And we’ve chosen to pass around a tattered plastic menu with faded images describing stale food.

No wonder people are settling for TV dinners and other fast foods. In a desperate attempt to fill their stomachs people are flocking to seminars on inner peace and self-actualization. They’re spending millions of dollars on a diet of popular psychology, psychic channelling and astrology. Desperate for hope, in need of nourishment, people will eat anything. They convince themselves that the canned script of paid marketers is spiritual insight. They stuff themselves with the rations of fake soothsayers, and some folk even attempt to feed on the words of mediums and channelers who tap the dark world of the occult. Oh, the depth of spiritual hunger!

Which makes one wonder. How can this be? Why are so many people feeding on the counterfeit? Why will people swallow the junk food that’s passed off as a staple diet? And why do we stop short of consuming a decent meal?

Maybe it’s because we’re not really hungry. Maybe we’ve come to believe that we’re full and content. Maybe our churches don’t lay out a banquet anymore. Maybe we’re willing to simply share the crumbs of a past visitation from God. Maybe we’ve settled for political correctness and tradition rather than a fresh outpouring of God’s Spirit. Maybe we’ve chosen to “eat the bread of idleness” (Proverbs 31:27) rather than the bread that sustains the heart (cf. Psalm 104:15). And maybe we’ve become so accustomed to surviving on a beggars lunch we no longer know the difference between a fresh loaf and a mouldy crust!

That’s why I’m hungry for more. That’s why I hunger and thirst for righteousness (cf. Matthew 5:6). That’s why I want to feast on God and be filled. And that’s why I believe it’s time for Christians to call on God to open the floodgates of heaven so that manna may fall and feed the spiritually hungry of our land.

So join me in prayer. Pray for God to pour out the “bread of life” (John 6:35) so that everybody can eat at God’s table. And make it your obsession to pursue a God induced hunger for the bread of His presence. For, when all is said and done, Jesus tells us that we should “not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life” John 6:27.

“Free me from snack-time devotion

from earth-style portions too small

to satisfy a Saviour-saved soul.

Withdraw my plate, remove my silverware

until I sup at the table prepared

in my enemies’ presence –

starve me until I hunger only for You.”

Mark Phillips.