Spiritual Snacking

Around 3:30 in the afternoon the hunger pangs begin. Thinking that I might die before dinner time arrives, I quick grab a snack - something intended to "hold me over" until we sit down to eat. Potato chips (and you can't ever just eat one, trust me!) are my favorite snack of choice to satisfy those uncomfortable pains. However, when I sit down to eat dinner a short time later, I am no longer hungry. What sits before me is delicious and nutritious, but it doesn't even look appetizing to me. If only I would have pushed through the hunger pangs and patiently waited for the meal to arrive so that I could savor and enjoy the food that has more value!

This reminds me of my spiritual appetite as well. When the hunger pangs begin, perhaps you recognize some of these hunger pangs--loneliness, sadness, anxiety, guilt and shame, discontentment, insecurities--I quick grab a "snack" to try to satisfy these pangs so I no longer need to feel them. There are a wide variety of "snacks" available to satisfy spiritual hunger pains. They are as unique as people are unique. Looking to relationships to satisfy insecurities, discontentment and loneliness; distractions like novels, social media and Netflix binges can temporarily relieve the pangs of guilt and shame, anxiety and sadness.

Those spiritual hunger pangs are actually our longing for God. They are a signal that we are hungry. Hungry for Him. But when I continue to eat spiritual potato chips, I may temporarily find relief from the pains, but in the process I spoil my appetite for the feast God has prepared for me. And the more I snack on those spiritual potato chips, the less hungry I am for the Bread of Life.

Fasting is an opportunity to stop snacking. And when we stop snacking we allow our spiritual hunger pangs to create in us an appetite for God. When we fast from something during a season - whether it is food, social media, caffeine, tv, whatever it is in our own lives that we "snack" on to remove the pangs in our souls - there will be an emptiness that we feel. An empty space where we feel the hunger pangs of life. And in that empty space we press in to God through reading of His Word and through prayer.

In this season of Lent if you choose to fast, let this be a beginning for you to discipline your soul to hunger for God and to increase your appetite for Him. Spend time feasting in God's Word, learning all that you can about who He is and what it means to belong to Him. Spend time feasting in prayer acknowledging your hunger and your need for Him! The more aware you are of your hunger pangs, the more you press in to the only One who can truly satisfy your hunger.

O taste and see that the Lord is good!