Hungry for God?

In hearing this excerpt from a recent sermon by John Piper, God reminded me of a couple things.

1) Come to church (or any time with God) hungry

I don't know what it is. Every time I'm reminded of this reality, it makes sense. Yet in this case, head knowledge rarely produces heart ache. I come to church the way I come to any other event. Glad to see friends. Excited to gather for corporate worship. Ready to hear God's Word preached. But am I really hungry? Am I starving for fellowship? Am I famished for worship? Am I craving God's Word?  Where is the expectation that only God can fill? Not just anticipation, because I can conjure up those feelings. No, where is my expectation that God will actually be present in our services (or Bible studies or devotions or prayers)? Where is my ravenous need to be filled with the food that only God can provide?

2) My lack of hunger is not because I am full of God

Here's the thing about being hungry for God. I think we are completely deceived about why it may be missing from our experience. Maybe we've have an occasional encounter with a deep, gnawing hunger for God, but in general, I think its safe to say we all live feeling quite full. Why is that? Have we really experienced so much of God that we have all of Him that we could possibly want or need? Is He a spiritual miser that doles out one bread crumb at a time? If its not these things, then what is it?

Reflect on the conscience-jabbing words of John Piper:

If you don't feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great. God did not create you for this. There is an appetite for God. And it can be awakened. . . .

The more deeply you walk with Christ, the hungrier you get for Christ . . . the more homesick you get for heaven . . . the more you want "all the fullness of God" . . . the more you want to be done with sin . . . the more you want the Bridegroom to come again . . . the more you want the Church revived and purified with the beauty of Jesus . . . the more you want a great awakening to God's reality in the cities . . . the more you want to see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ penetrate the darkness of all the unreached peoples of the world . . . the more you want to see false worldviews yield to the force of Truth . . . the more you want to see pain relieved and tears wiped away and death destroyed . . . the more you long for every wrong to be made right and the justice and grace of God to fill the earth like the waters cover the sea.  (A Hunger for God, 23)

All of that to say "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied." (Mt 5:6)

To God Alone be the Glory