This is an all too common exclamation. Nobody really thinks the person using it is actually wasting away.* Their body is sending their brain a signal that it hasn’t consumed food in a few hours and they better get on it. Often this happens when we skip breakfast. I ran accross this verse recently in my reading:
And He (the Lord) humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Deuteronomy 8:3
When I read that I did a double take. God not only allows hunger, but uses it to instruct us in relying on Him. Since starting the intermittent fasting, I have had numerous hunger pangs. Normally what I do is pray for someone and take a drink of water or tea. Anyway, Moses is telling us that we ought to live on God’s word.
This made me wonder, am I malnourished – not physically but spiritually malnourished. Am I starving for God’s word? Then I had to consider this verse from the prophet Amos 8:11
“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God , “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.
I’m sure no generation wants to think that theirs is the generation going to experience the famine. But I wonder if we don’t sometimes starve ourselves. If we go a couple of days without taking in the word of God or a few weeks attending the Lord’s house we are on the way to starving ourselves.
Finally, our bodies tell us when we are hungry. We get a signal in our brain saying time to eat. What might the signal be that we need to get back to the word? Top 5 indicators you need to eat:
- Impatience with a brother
- Anger for a perceived wrong
- Resentment of a spouse or coworker
- Bitterness towards someone you love
- Desire for something you know is wrong
There are lots of others but you get the idea. Here, Ephesians 4:32 really speaks:
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
*Yes, I know there are the hungry in America. This was not what I’m talking about.
Half The Man 