Hungry Anyone?

The other day I went out to run some errands, and I forgot to bring a snack. The Lord suggested I get a bagel at Panera when I was in the area. That sounded like a good idea, until I got to the store close to there and it was already after 3 pm. My trip was getting long and to stop and eat a bagel was only going to make it longer. But the Lord was in one of those romantic moods, and He came in with that charming smile and drawing words. Come on, get the bagel, My treat. 
Well if You really want to, okay.

I walked over and got my bagel, before settling myself at a table outside for it was a beautiful day.
As I ate, I observed the people at the three other tables. Each group was very different from the other, yet they all had something in common, they were hungry. And I don't mean hungry for food, like the bagel I was eating, they were hungry for deeper fulfillment.

On the far end there was a young lady with some friends. She knew she was physically attractive and she held nothing back in flaunting it, from her perfect long blonde hair to the shirt that barely covered her. She was hungry for something and she was going to try and feed it with the affection and approval of others.

At the next table was a woman with a notebook in her lap and a Catholic priest sitting across from her. Their conversation was in Spanish so I don't know what she was asking or what he was saying, but that notebook in her lap told of her search. She was hungry for something and she was going to try and feed it with religion.

At the third table was a small family. A husband, wife, and a teenage son. The husband was the only one eating and he might as well have been alone, for his wife and son spent the entire time looking down at their cell phones. Almost nothing was said and when the wife did speak it was in regards to something on the phone for her eyes never left it. They were hungry for something and they were going to try and feed it with information.

But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”

John 4:32

Even as Christians we can be hungry. I've always been a very spiritually hungry person. As a teenager my favorite verse and promise that I clung to was Matthew 5:6

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

For they shall be filled.

I longed to be filled! Yet I often found myself hungry, I was obedient to the Lord's plans, but I tried to fill myself with daydreams about the life I would have someday. The life I felt would finally satisfy that gnawing ache of starvation. 

For a long time I didn't realize that the food that would fill me was right there in front of me.

Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.

John 4:34

The food that fills us isn't a place, it's a purpose. We, like Jesus, have been put here on this earth to do the will of the Father. 

What is the will of the Father? Whatever He asks. 

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

Matthew 7:21

Doing the will of the Father isn't us coming up with the top ten most spiritual sounding things we could do, or trying to give Him what we think He would like. King Saul tried to be clever in 1 Sam. 15:15 and did what he wanted in the name of "serving God". He got this rebuke:

“Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,

As in obeying the voice of the LORD?

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,

And to heed than the fat of rams.

1 Samuel 15:22

But how do I know the Father's will?

“No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.

John 15:15

If you desire to know His will you will know it, hearing isn't the issue, it's willingness to obey what we hear. I knew that the life I was living in obedience to the Lord's will should be enough, but I wanted something else. And until I was willing to let go of those daydreams, that imaginary meal I was daily consuming and accept the food, the Father's will, that was right in front of me, I wasn't satisfied. 

Today, I can joyfully declare with Jesus, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work." That doesn't mean the temptation to snack on other things isn't there, but the more I eat of His food, the more I hunger for it, and the more satisfied I am. 

What kind of food are you eating?