by Amanda Huthnance
How hungry are we for God? How hungry do we get for those encounters? Are we leaving the presence of God changed then from when we went in? God is calling us to fulfill a great destiny and complacency is something that can come upon us and stop us from moving forward. But if God is calling you to a life of GREATNESS why settle for just Good!
When babies are hungry they cry out to their parents… as do we cry out as Christians to God. To stop the crying the baby is often given a dummy. The Encarta dictionary says that a ‘dummy’ is a small rubber or plastic object with a teat that a baby is given to suck for comfort. The baby becomes content with the dummy and stops crying… although the baby is comforted and temporarily is satisfied… they soon realise that it isn’t the real thing.
When we get hungry we desire to be fed. And unfortunately like babies we can sometimes settle for the dummy instead of the real thing. We lose our momentum and enthusiasm to dive deeper within our relationship with God - to go to the next level. Unfortunately church to some Christians is the dummy – they go and worship God and get comforted and it only satisfies them for a short time.
Food is the source of nutrients for living beings, it provides us with energy and growth, as does our communion with God satisfy our spiritual hunger. Once we step up into the next level of maturity and growth spiritually, we must realize that worshipping God isn’t a ‘comfort thing’ – we are to be worshipping God in every aspect of our lives during the week (Romans 12:1 – give your bodies to God because all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice- the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him - NLT).
We need to continually be fed so we can grow, mature and develop in our walk with God. As we spend that one on one time with God our relationships will be strengthened. God is waiting for us to commune with him so he can build us up and equip us to do all that he has called us to do. In John 4:34 – Jesus explained: My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work (NLT).
Let’s not be people who stay on the dummy for comfort but realise that Christianity isn’t supposed to be comfortable. It’s about doing what God has called us to do. An example of something that pushes us out of our comfort zone is fasting. It is a sacrifice of the flesh to develop spiritual growth and a deeper connection with God. We deny our flesh food so we can focus on feeding our soul – our spiritual food.
How comfortable do we get in the presence of God?? How comfortable are we to worship God?
Worship isn’t always going to be comfortable either; it’s a sacrifice of praise. It’s about pushing through and giving praise to the one who is worthy. We should be worshipping and serving God because He is who He is and deserves it rather than for the way it makes us feel. God is crying out for our attention. He wants us to want him. He wants us to choose to spend time with him. He desires us to be with him.
If we are getting ready training and equipping ourselves to be and do what God has called us to do then we need to be consistent in our feeding, not only getting it on Sundays but every day. We need to be courageous and willing to take the next levels into a deeper intimate relationship with God. He is waiting for us and he doesn’t what as to be satisfied with the mediocre life – he wants us to experience the real thing, this will empower us to move forward. Let’s not settle for the dummy but be hungry for the real thing.
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