IT'S NOT THE MENU, IT'S THE HUNGER

PRAYER JOURNAL 4/4/19

Matthew 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. 

Have you ever searched the pantry, looked in the refrigerator, and rummaged through the kitchen cabinets before concluding you had “nothing to eat?”  REALLY????  NOTHING?????  What about a can of soup, a box of cereal, toast and jelly or scrambled eggs?  Yes, there was plenty of food but nothing that appealed to you at the moment.  The problem wasn’t with the selection of food; the problem was you were not hungry enough.

A few years ago, Steve and I decided to stop at a highly recommended restaurant on our way to Knoxville, TN.  The interior of the restaurant was beautifully decorated and offered a cool, serene atmosphere away from the glare of a Tennessee summer sun.  We were seated and handed leather-bound menus.  I read through the menu several times searching for something among the large selection of soups, sandwiches, salads, and entrees to order, but nothing appealed to me.  I’m sure everything would have been prepared to perfection and served in an appetizing, inviting presentation, but not one thing on the menu made my “mouth water.”  When the waitress came to our table, we apologized, told her we had changed our mind and left the restaurant. It wasn’t the menu, it was our hunger!

Having been in ministry for several years, I have witnessed this phenomenon and even experienced it myself many times.  You may attend a church that offers a variety of music, classes, ministry opportunities, worship services, accomplished speakers, preaching, teaching, and Bible study on the menu. Perhaps you sample them all and leave filled service after service until one day……….  One Sunday or one Wednesday, you enter the sanctuary and peruse the menu.  The music is not the right genre and just doesn’t soothe your soul.  The pastor drones on teaching the same old lesson with a few new stories and as for prayer time; “Come on, get what you need from God and let’s go home.”  Finally, the dismissal prayer is prayed and you leave, unsatisfied.  You just aren’t “being fed.”   

Hmmmmm!!!  Are you sure?  There was a full menu offered, an appetizer of worship, singing praise and giving glory to God, an entrée of well-prepared “meat” of the Word and even a lovely dessert of God’s presence around the altar.  Nothing to eat?  Not being fed?  It’s Not The Menu; It’s The Hunger!

Before you apologize and leave the “restaurant” because there is “nothing to eat,” check your hunger and thirst.  Have you been stuffing yourself with so much “junk food” that there is no room to feast on the Word?  Has your thirst been slaked by “flavored water” from the world’s wells until there is no longer a thirst for the Presence of God?  Perhaps it is time to empty yourself of all the unhealthy food you’ve been ingesting and become HUNGRY once again. 

IT’S NOT THE MENU, IT’S THE HUNGER!