Spiritually Full or Spiritually Hungry - Which is Better?

As a kid, I loved the holidays, especially Christmas and Thanksgiving. We always had friends over and all shared a big meal. There were so many kinds of foods: turkey, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, buttery dinner rolls, and cherry pie. I didn’t eat much during the day so that I’d be especially hungry at dinner time.

Then by the end, I felt so full…almost too full. You know that feeling when you eat too much? The food coma that starts creeping up? Or that gross, sick-to-your-stomach feeling of having stuffed too much down?

Just like we stuff ourselves with physical food, sometimes we stuff ourselves with spiritual food too. But does God want us to be stuffed and spiritually full? Maybe it depends on what you’re filling yourself with.

Being Spiritually Full When We Should Be Spiritually Hungry

Hunger is a good thing. It tells us we need to eat in order to keep our body functioning healthily, and to get our energy back. If we don’t eat anything for a long time, that hunger becomes more painful and harder to ignore and we sometimes end up eating anything we can get our hands on – even if it’s unhealthy.

That same kind of desire is true for our spirits as well. Our spirits feel hungry because they’ve been separated from their Creator due to sin. That separation has caused a “God-shaped hole” in our spirits. We want to fill that hole and become complete once again. So, if our spirits are hungry then what sort of food should they eat to be satisfied?

Healthy Food vs Junk Food

God gave us His Word to fill ourselves with. But throughout time, other sides or dishes have popped up alongside God’s Word. Things like commentaries, our own opinions and what we think about the Bible now accompany the original meal God had prepared for us. All of these things we consume about the Bible are like food for our spirits.

If we end up eating junk food, we no longer feel hungry for the healthy food our bodies really need. Then, we end up feeling full with the wrong kinds of food. This is also true spiritually.

God’s Word – The Superfood

God’s Word is healthy spiritual food. But sometimes we may not always understand what we read in the Bible. We might look to other things like commentaries or rely on our own thoughts in our search for understanding. In doing that, we start eating other people’s understandings and opinions which could have a different meaning than what God had originally intended. We start to get spiritually full on words other than God’s. Yes, maybe they studied for a long time in theology school, but in the end, they’re all guesses. The only one who knows the true meaning is God and He actually withheld the true meaning on purpose. But we’ll save that for another time.

People’s thoughts and opinions are like spiritual junk food. They may fill us up, but don’t give us what we truly need. When we read the Bible, we need to read it as is. That’s what God intended for us to do.

Then the Lord replied: “Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.

Habakkuk 2:2-3

Wait! The Main Course Isn’t Here Yet!

God gave us His word knowing we wouldn’t be able to understand it fully. He promised that it will be explained at an “appointed time”. So the food we need to consume is the Bible by itself. It won’t make you completely full because you’re supposed to be hungrily awaiting the explanation. But when we add to or take away from it, we end up eating the wrong kind of food and get spiritually full on that. And as a result, we won’t be hungry for what God has to say to us when the appointed time comes.

In the Old Testament, God prophesied about a coming Messiah. But He hid the true meaning by sealing up the words in prophecy (Isaiah 29:11-15). This means that nobody knew what those prophecies would mean until the time when the promised Messiah came and explained them.

Filling Up on Appetizers

It’s like an appetizer – something you eat, but don’t completely fill up on. It makes you even hungrier for the main course. God wanted His people to snack on the prophecies: reading and knowing them. So when the main course came, (the fulfillment- the things that were said actually happening), they would be able to recognize, believe it, and eat the true spiritual food.

The religious leaders at that time didn’t know the meaning of the prophecies. But instead of admitting they didn’t know, the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law began to add their own interpretations of what God’s Word meant instead of waiting for the proper time. They added their own thoughts and traditions, and taught that to the Jewish people. They fed them their own self-made meals instead of waiting for the main course that hadn’t come yet.

When the time came and the Messiah appeared, the Jews didn’t believe in him because he didn’t match up to what they thought he would be like (John 5:37-40). They were already spiritually full with their own food. They had no room in their heart (or spiritual stomachs) for Jesus and the spiritual food he brought. Jesus said in John 6:27 to not work for food that perishes, but for food that endures to eternal life. Later on in that chapter, Jesus says his flesh and blood are the true food and true drink. He explains that it is the words he speaks, his teachings, that we must eat. If God’s people were hungry for God’s Word instead of eating what the Pharisees gave them, then they would have believed in Jesus and in his words.

Why You Shouldn’t Be Spiritually Full…Yet

Whether it’s with art, literature, or food, the creator knows the true meaning of their creation. How would you feel if, after creating something with a specific meaning that you intend to soon share, people tried to explain what it meant on their own? Then after you explained what it meant, those people disagree, and say that your explanation about your own creation is wrong? Any of us would be upset and really offended. Since it’s your creation, you thought that people would accept your explanation about the true meaning.

So how do you think God feels when people try to explain His Word on their own? How do you think he felt when the religious leaders called Jesus “demon-possessed” when he tried to give them the truth?

Jesus came and explained how the Old Testament prophecies pointed to him so that the Jews would believe and come to him for salvation. Today, Christians already believe that Jesus was the Messiah, but now we have other things we need to know and believe. Jesus gave us prophecies in the New Testament about his second coming. He spoke these prophecies figuratively, but promised a time when they would be spoken plainly.

Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father.

John 16:25

Don’t Miss Out on the Main Course

If we are hungry for God’s Word, then we should eat and know Jesus’s words alone. Then, we should wait for the time when those prophecies are fulfilled. When they are fulfilled, we will be able to fill ourselves with the complete truth, the true meaning of the prophecies. But just like at the time of Jesus’s first coming, there are all kinds of spiritual foods being passed around. People are giving their own explanations of what they think Jesus’s words and promises mean. So often, people confidently say that they already know everything, that they don’t need anything else – spiritually full.

So we have to choose. Do we stuff ourselves full with spiritual junk food and risk the chance of being too full and missing out when the main course comes? Or do we eat what God and Jesus have provided, wait with a hungry heart, and prepare ourselves for the coming truth? The choice is up to you.

Written by Kenny

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Spiritually Full or Spiritually Hungry – Which is Better?