April 24

“Jesus said if we believe in Him, we will never be spiritually hungry....We say, ‘Yes, but I remember a time when I was spiritually hungry.’....Could it be that we relied so heavily upon friends and the experiences of others that we have never learned how to go to Christ for our own spiritual food?”  H. Blackaby, Experiencing God Day-by-Day, 4/24

Yes.  I would suspect that this is the first reason we feel spiritually malnourished.  We are too busy looking at our neighbors instead of helping them.  We scrutinize them, compare ourselves, or in some way try to emulate them.  We’re supposed to be looking at Jesus so that we will know that we are living the life of Christ in us.  Why is this so hard for us?   I believe it’s because we see ourselves as flesh first and then spirits.  If we were to realize that we are spirits in earth suits we just might see everything differently.  First, we’d not see death as the end of ourselves but instead a change of venue.  Then we’d value relationships much more than creature comforts because our spirits don’t need any of the comforts that our bodies crave.  I would even suspect that we’d view pain differently as well.  When we confuse our bodies with our spirits--as though they were one entity--we are tempted to take pain personally in a way that not only hurts physically but emotionally.  Jesus is the Bread of Life.  Let us feast on Him instead!

“How lovely is thy dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!  My soul longs, yea, faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.”  Psalm 84:1, 2