How Hungry are You?

Matthew 15:32 Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.

Matthew chapter fifteen describes the miracle of Jesus feeding a multitude of followers with just seven loaves and two fish. Although the miracle is rightfully the centerpiece of the passage, one thing that also stands out is that the people had been following Jesus for three entire days, without anything to eat. The multitude so hungered after Christ that they suppressed their physical hunger, focusing only on the spiritual bread of His teaching. Another interesting part of the story is that Jesus waited three whole days before feeding them. No doubt, he could have fed them earlier, but He divinely chose to wait until they were about to depart and needed strength for their journey.

As I considered the timing of Jesus’ supplying their physical needs, I began to think of applications to our lives today. First, He supplied their physical needs after He met their spiritual needs. The multitude was so hungry for the Lord, that they disregarded their own desires and focused only on Him. In like manner, we must possess a single-minded desire for God. He must be our focus and priority. We should desire for the Lord to feed us spiritually more than provide for us physically. As Job expressed, “I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.” We often miss God’s miracle in our lives because we do not have burden for Him above all else. Second, the people had to deny themselves, and be diligent about abiding with Christ; otherwise they would not have seen the miracle. If a member of the crowd had decided they were too hungry and left on the second day, they would have missed the miracle entirely. In our lives, we must also stay faithful in following the Lord if we want to see His miracle. If we allow ourselves to falter or turn back from following Him, we will not see His blessings. Even if we have physical needs that God does not seem to be meeting, we cannot allow them to distract us from following after Christ. Surely, if we are faithful in abiding with Him, He will provide for us in His time. Lastly, although Jesus was concerned about their physical needs, those needs were secondary to His desire to feed them spiritually. We often expect the Lord to have the same urgency to meet our physical needs as we do. However, God may have spiritual lessons He needs to teach us before He provides for our flesh. God’s priorities are spiritual not carnal. He does indeed have compassion on us, and He promised to meet our needs, but He did not promise that we would always be comfortable, basking in all manner of physical blessings. However, if we keep our desire wholly on Him, focusing first on the spiritual food Christ has for us, He will surely meet our physical needs and we might well even see a miracle.

A Good Soldier

II Timothy 2:3
Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ

The Navy SEALs, who have come into recent fame with their operation on Osama bin Laden, are elite combat experts and go through some of the most rigorous training in the world. All told, a SEAL recruit may undergo as much as 30 months of training before being deployed for an operation. Their training is designed to push them to the absolute limits of mental and physical stamina. They are expected to perform in conditions of extreme heat, cold, and exhaustion. One segment of the training involves 132 hours of continuous physical training (mostly while cold and wet) with only a few hours of sleep over that period. SEAL training along with any special operations training is designed to push an individual to his absolute limit of mental and physical endurance.

Of course, the reason that this training is so intense is because the special operations soldiers are selected to perform some of the most important missions in the world. Those who pass the training are given elite assignments that require solid execution and often change history. Their training is difficult because their assignments are so important.

In II Timothy 2:3, God tells us to endure hardness as a good soldier. Without a doubt, we Christians are in a battle. Our warfare is not carnal, but spiritual, and our operations have eternal consequences. Although we often expect our lives to be smooth and stable, with every desire supplied by our Heavenly Father, God often has a different plan. Sometimes it is God’s will for us to endure hardness, just like a soldier. Sometimes God wants to push the limits of our faith, emotions, and sometimes even physical stamina. Being a good soldier is God’s army is not easy, and we should not expect it to be. However, we can be confident that God has a reason for the hardness of His training. Just as the SEALs train through unimaginable difficulty in order to serve in critical missions, those soldiers whom God trains are being prepared for critical operations. God’s training is hard because He knows how to prepare us for the future. He knows what missions lie ahead for us and is bringing things into our lives to prepare us to meet those challenges and accomplish His will.

We have many examples of this principle in God’s Word. Joseph went through years of struggle and unfairness, difficulty and prison in order for God to use him to save an entire nation along with his family from famine. Job went through an incredibly grueling trial having lost his children, health, and possessions in order to be an eternal example of faith and God’s sovereignty. The list could go on, but we can glean from these stories the faith to be a good soldier. Sometimes we must understand that the harder our training, the bigger God’s plan.

If you have been feeling discouraged recently because life has been hard, let me encourage you to find strength in the Lord and endure hardness as a good soldier, knowing that God has a reason for bringing difficulties into our lives, and that surely He is training us for an important plan where we can accomplish His will.