Our Pastor recently asked the congregation to join him in reading the book, “The God Chasers.” My husband and I read it many years ago, but decided to re-read it. As you may know, the book centers around the experience Pastor Tommy Tenney had when he got to the point where he was desperate to see and experience more of God. He began to seek the face of God, versus the hand of God. He was hungry!
I hear the lord saying to His church, “Are you hungry? Are you truly hungry for more of me?”
Most of us do not know what it means to be truly hungry. We think we are hungry, but we have never experienced a hunger so deep that we are willing to steal to fill our bellies or willing to eat something that would otherwise appear inedible. We are only a little hungry. We are only the kind of hungry we get after we’ve eaten a meal and someone offers us dessert.
For the most part, we want all the extras God has to offer (healing, answers to prayer, etc.). We want anything that doesn’t change our life too much or cause us to become uncomfortable. We want to experience the joy and the miracles, but we don’t want to pay the price. We don’t want to appear foolish or take the time to get out of our comfort zone to press in. We don’t want to spend the extra time to seek Him and miss out on lunch or our favorite television show. We don’t want to get out of our seat and go pray with that person across the aisle on Sunday or reach out to someone in need. We aren’t THAT hungry…
A long time ago, God showed me a picture of a pot of ABC Vegetable Soup while I was praying. His message to me was this: If you let the pot sit and don’t stir the soup, the ABC noodles fall to the bottom and stick. They may even burn, despite the fact that they are still in the soup. They have to be stirred…they have to be kept moving. He brought that picture and message back to my mind the other day.
We Christians can be like those ABCs. We love God and we want to be in the soup, but we don’t like to be stirred. So, we fall to the bottom where it is comfortable. We settle for status quo because it is easy. We look to someone else to take the spoon and mix up the soup a little bit now and then, but we don’t grab the spoon and we definitely don’t want them to stir too much! It’s still soup and we are still Christians, but what we don’t see is the dangerous place we’ve allowed ourselves to be in. We are in danger of burning out…Becoming stuck. We are unappealing to those around us. Who wants burnt soup? Who wants noodles that are stuck together and gummy?
The world isn’t attracted to yucky soup. Matter of fact, God speaks about it in His Word:
Matthew 5:13 – “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.”
Revelation 3:16 (KJV) – “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.”
“Heavenly Father, Help us to be hungry for more of you. Help us not to be satisfied with where we are at. Stir us, and help us to stir one another. Open our ears to hear your voice. Fill us with your desires. Renew our passion for all that you have.” In Jesus Name, Amen.”
Hebrews 10:24-25 (NIV) – 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
