“Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink - even if you have no money! Come, take your choice of wine or milk - it’s all free! Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength? Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen to me, and you will eat what is good. You will enjoy the finest food.” Isaiah 55:1-2 NLT
With the discipline of silence, I am awakened to the danger of my heart being a path making it difficult for the gospel of God's love to bear fruit in my life. As I learn to rest in peace in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit revealed the stones of pride, fears and doubts and turned them into a highway of holiness. It is a highway through the wilderness of my soul and I need God's Word to be a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path (Psalms 119:105 NLT).
The season of Advent is a time to whet my appetite for God’s Word for I cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4 NLT). Instead of craving for possessions, positions, power and pleasure, I need to hunger and thirst for love, joy and peace. I have the assurance that my spiritual hunger and spiritual thirst will be satisfied for He has prepared a feast for us:
“You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings.” Psalms 23:5 NLT
The COVID 19 pandemic has revealed the inequalities and injustices of the economic as well as health care systems in the world. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. The rich are overfed with unhealthy food and the poor are starving for a decent meal in this world. When we enjoy and desire junk food, we will not hunger and thirst for healthy food. Likewise, if we desire fame, wealth and power, we will not hunger and thirst for righteousness. In God’s kingdom it is those who are hungry and thirsty for justice who are joyfully blessed:
“God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.” Matthew 5:6 NLT
Spiritual hunger comes from a desire to do God’s will. Spiritual gluttony is the temptation to study the scriptures with the goal of satisfying our love for power. When the wise men from the East went to King Herod to find how they can find the newborn king of the Jews, he was deeply disturbed and he asked the leading priests and teachers of religious law, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?” They told him:
“In Bethlehem in Judea,” they said, “for this is what the prophet wrote: ‘And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are not least among the ruling cities of Judah, for a ruler will come from you who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.’” Matthew 2:3-6 NLT
King Herod told the wise men that he wanted to worship the newborn king but God knows his true motive and the wise men were warned by God in a dream not to return to King Herod. (Matthew 2:8-12)
Holy Scripture reveals the spiritual dimension of life which is filled with the weeds of the forces of evil as well as the wheat of God’s grace. The sacred stories of the bible are, to quote Brian McLaren, bottomless wells of meaning. We are to meditate on them to guide us in the predicaments of life - to help us understand our identity as a child of God, to find meaning for our lives especially in times of grief and sorrow, and to be the channels of God’s love, joy and peace in a world of hate, despair and fear.
The bible is the written Word of God to lead us to Jesus Christ, the Living Word of God. The Pharisees searched the scriptures to seek eternal life but they were blind to the truth that Jesus is the source of eternal life:
“You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life." John 5:39-40 NLT
The bible is the Sword of the Spirit to destroy the strongholds of evil and to help us overcome the temptations of the world and the forces of evil. It is also a two-edged sword to purify our hearts:
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12 NKJV
Spiritual gluttony only fills my mind with biblical facts but leaves my heart untouched. It is spiritual hunger that will lead me to feed on God’s Word so that my heart can be purified and my life transformed with the spiritual DNA of the resurrected Christ. Only then can I glorify God as I follow Christ in the journey to become fully human and fully divine.
In this season of Advent, I am learning to listen to the voice of God as I meditate on the sacred scriptures by opening my mind and heart to the Holy Spirit with the discipline of silence. As I sing the carol, “Once in Royal David’s City, I pray that the words will take root in my heart:
Through His own redeeming love;
For that child so dear and gentle,
Is our Lord in heaven above,
And He leads His children on,
To the place where He is gone.”
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