Is God Starving?

If God got hungry what would He eat?  Could the infinite one be satisfied with a mere steak and potatoes?  Would a glass of water quench the thirst of the One who made heaven and earth?  How could something so small fill and satisfy the One who is bigger than we can even imagine?

He is very hungry and desires to eat hardy!  Just think again if the One who made the heavens and earth were to eat how much would it take to feed Him?  What would God eat?  Searching scripture, I found God’s food!  In Psalm 50:13-15, He clearly says “Do I eat the meat of bulls? Do I drink the blood of goats?  Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God and keep the vows you made to the Most High.  Then call on me when you are I trouble and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory.”  (NLT) 

What a God we serve!  All He desires to feast upon is our thankfulness to Him for all the many blessings He gives us!  We must move from casually saying thanks or ignoring the blessings all together, to openly and reverently thanking God for His providing, sustaining, and maintaining us in all things that allow us to go about our day and most of the time never even give thought towards.  And the best part He ends it with a promise for if we continue to give Him thanks, He promises that when we are in trouble, He will rescue us, so that we may give Him more glory!

The God who created you, loves you beyond measure and would do anything for you, is waiting.  Will you feed Him, as He has provided food for you also?  Even Jesus, as He hung on the cross, one of the last things He said was, “I thirst!”  God desires to feed on your praise.  Are you starving Him or feeding Him?

Intimately Knowing

It amazes me to think about how much God knows you.  Jeremiah 1:5 says, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou came forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”  This means that God knew us before we were conceived, before we were a twinkling in our Daddy’s eye.  Even before your Grandpa met your Grandma and said, “Hey baby, let’s go for a ride”, He knew us, and ordained us: each and every one of us.  He goes on to tell us in Jeremiah 29:11 that, “I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”  He not only knows us from before we were formed, but He knows where He wants to take us to and where we will be at the end.  He stands at the beginning of life and pushes us out from eternity into time, is with us throughout life to carry us through, and at the end of life to receive us back to Him, all at the same time.  He is truly omnipresent.

But yet it goes farther than that. Matthew 10:30 says, “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”  It is amazing to me that a God who I would think would be busy running the universe with all its endless duties, wants, and needs, that God would have the time to number the hairs on the heads of each of us.  However it goes farther and is more intimate than that.  It speaks to a level of intimacy that is beyond comprehension and can only be explained by a love that surpasses all understanding.  Try to understand that He knows us so well, that when we comb our hair and one hair is pulled out; He knows that was hair number 15,937 that we just lost!  Yes my brothers and sisters He keeps that close of an eye on us and knows us that well.

If God knows you, and loves you this deeply and this intimately, and given that fact that what we all seek is an intimacy with someone who truly knows us, when are we going to take the time to find out more about this God, who loves us intimately this much?

Where do you run to?

Scripture Reference: 1 Samuel 19:18 “So David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Naioth.”

At this time in David’s life, Saul, his father-in-law no less, is trying to kill him.  The very one he has trusted, put his life at risk for, carried out every order he was given to do, and even to the point of becoming part of his family, now that person seeks David’s Life. Have you ever been in a position where the one trying to kill you is the one you thought you could trust the most?

The Bible says, “David fled”.  Where did he go? To a man, a prophet and Israel’s last Judge, Samuel: the one who had anointed him king several years ago.  Fortunately Samuel knew where to run too.  He took David to Naioth. 

Naoith, (Naw-veeth) means dwelling, or residence.  This is where the school of the prophets was and more importantly where God dwelt.  Since the entire time that Saul had been king, he did not set up a place for God to dwell, however Samuel did.  Samuel taught David to run to God.  That is our lesson; we should learn to run to God.

When life is bearing down on us, when we have nowhere to turn, when we feel like even our loved ones are out to kill us, we should run to God.  Where is God? The Bible says, “He is a friend and sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24).  All we have to do is call on Him and He will be there.   When will learn to go to HIS dwelling place?

So who do you run to, your friends?  God might not dwell there.  Or to your GOD?

Who do you run to?

Scripture Reference 1 Samuel 30:6 "And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God."

Does it ever seem like all hell is breaking loose in your life?  Does it seem like everyone is out to kill you, even the people you have helped, lead, feed, and cared for their safety? You know the ones you love.

We pick up the text midway through the story. David has returned home only to find his home has been taken captive and all his loved ones led away by the enemy. The very men whom he has counted on, the same ones, who came to him, for he did not seek them out, but they came to him of their own free will, now talk of stoning him, as if he purposely had all of their loved-ones taken captive.  I am sure David did not get up that morning and say to himself, “I wonder if I go out to battle, that the enemy will come in and take all that we have so I can make the people mad?”  No, no. I doubt those were his intentions, but that is what happened.

When things go wrong, we always look for someone to blame.  The term is called “scape-goat”.  The lamb we often hear about, but the scape-goat we seldom talk about.  A Scape-goat: someone who takes the blame, even though he did not really do the act of which he is accused.  The men, who followed David, understandably are upset. All their loved ones have been taken captive and no one knows where they are at or to where they have been taken.  “Someone has to be blamed! Someone has to pay! Its David’s fault! Let’s kill him, and inflict the pain upon him that he inflicted upon us!”

One problem, David did not inflict the pain.  Oh yeah he may have help cause some of it, by going off to battle and not protecting the home front, but he never intentionally set out to cause his men and their loved one pain and heartache.  And as the men looked around for a scape-goat, David looks up to God.

The Bible said, “David encouraged himself in the LORD…” Here’s the thing guys, and gals, if you don’t get anything else out of this text, you better get this, “David encouraged himself in the LORD…” Nobody knows what you need, like you do.  Nobody knows how to give it to you, like you do. But there is only one place to get it. That is in the LORD!

“Come unto Me, ALL ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of Me: for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)

To whom are you running to?