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How’s your appetite these days? There are two kinds of appetites a person can have:
The distinction is based on obedience to God and the long-term experience of feeding an appetite. For example, if I have an angry appetite to tell someone off, to let them have it, to put them to shame – I may feel good after I’ve “vented” on them, but things will change down the road. A couple days later I may be thinking, “You know, I really shouldn’t have said some of those things.” And a year or two later I will likely be thinking, “Oh my goodness, why did I have to react like that? Shame on me.” It’s the same thing with other kinds of appetites: gambling addictions, excessive shopping sprees, eating too much at buffets, alcohol, promiscuous sex, drug use, etc. These are appetites that can leave a person with a feeling of self-disgust. But Jesus points to a better way when He says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (in Matthew 5:6). Here He speaks of an appetite that will bring satisfaction if you indulge it. This will come when we want to be right with God as much as a starving man wants food and a parched woman wants water. I had a friend in college who told me about her church habits. She said, “I sometimes don’t go to church cuz I’m too tired on Sunday mornings. I know I should always go. And every time I make myself get up and go to church, I feel glad that I went.” She was speaking there of two appetites: 1) Her appetite for sleep, and 2) Her spiritual appetite. She was discovering that if she didn’t over-indulge the first appetite in order to tend to the second one, then she would experience satisfaction. There are a couple truths about life that come to mind here… First, it’s a problem if you don’t have an appetite. Lack of an appetite is a sign of bad health. A large tree, for example, will consume 65 gallons of water daily in hot summer weather. It has to do this in order to keep its leaves green. But if it ceases to have that appetite, then it withers and dies. In my front yard there’s a cherry tree that’s dead. All of its leaves are withered. It has no appetite. And the same thing can happen to us spiritually. The second thing is this: Sometimes people have high expectations of their churches when it comes to being “spiritually fed”. They want high quality worship experiences, sermons, Bible classes, music, and the like. And so churches will strive to provide these things – as they should. But really the most important thing is what kind of appetite we bring to the table. The hungrier we are, the better off we are. So be sure to get your spiritual food! The buffet is open every Sunday. God bless you, Pastor Andrew McHenry Maple Hill Community Congregational Church |