Come Hungry

Come hungry! Those two words suggest something else at the end of the invitation -- especially if someone is inviting you over to their house. You’re pretty sure they are going to make certain they have enough food of some kind to fill you up.

When I was a young girl, our family received an invitation to come to the home another family. We didn’t know them very well, and the time of day we were invited to come left my mother uncertain as to the purpose of the visit. Were we coming for dinner – or just to get to know one another better? She didn’t know, and thought it rude to ask. So, upon discussing it, we were convinced we needed to go ahead and eat something first, and then go.

As soon as we walked in the door we knew we were wrong! The table was beautifully set, and the aroma of a wonderful meal awaited us. How in the world were we going to eat another meal? Yet, we certainly didn’t want our hostess to have prepared all this wonderful food in vain! So, we kept quiet, and ate again. Full? You better believe it! We left EXTREMELY FULL!

As human beings, all of us possess an inner hunger – an inner thirst – a longing that needs to be filled. The invitation of our Lord to know Him carries with it the promise . . . when we hunger and thirst after righteousness we shall be filled. Yet we have to be hungering and thirsting after “right things” in order to be able to be filled with “right things!”

Just as our family would have enjoyed the meal so much more if we had gone hungry, so our souls and spirits can be fully satisfied with Christ when we choose to fill our lives with Him.

Temporal satisfaction is very deceiving. We laugh for a moment in sin’s pleasure, but soon find the emptiness and heartache its aftermath provides. We satisfy our thirst with yet another material possession – or fill our lives with legitimate, seemingly all important, things “to do,” but soon find ourselves in a rat race which never ends with the word fulfilled. The only way to end a day fulfilled is to live it in the fullness of Christ.

Are you hungry? He is the Bread of Life! Are you thirsty? He is the water to quench the inner thirst of your soul. He is everything to me – and will be to you too! Just . . . come hungry!

Take it with You

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6)