Why do I pray over my food with a long prayer? I have been asked by a number of people that. The first time I was asked that I gave a different answer but subsequent times was due to a few times because I had no food (hence why I am grateful and will pray longer). Due to poor mismanagement of my finances and never one to really plan and buy necessary groceries versus whatever I felt like buying—stores or restaurants—at the moment of hunger, convenience, or to put on airs, there were a few times while before I was married that I had no food. I’m not talking about I didn’t have entrees or certain foods to make any meals or that I was too picky of an eater and didn’t eat certain foods that I had but refused to cook and eat. I literally had no food. After a couple of days and only able to scrounge up enough coin to buy a gumball to last until pay day. Peanut butter and crackers would had been a feast. A sandwich would had been like Thanksgiving. I was hungry.
Matthew 4 shares that Jesus went to the wilderness and at the end of His 40 days of fasting and praying, Satan stepped in. And with one of the most basic needs for all people and animals is food. Jesus was hungry. It is one thing to do an intentional fast to purge the body; however, some people like me cheat by porking on the food (if possible) prior to attempt to ride out the fast if for multiple days by living on what we ate. But this was not the case for Jesus and certainly whatever He ate prior was long since digested and gone. And the first thing that Satan attacked was Jesus’ stomach. Jesus’ response was quoting Deuteronomy 8:3, “…Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
That is physical so let us swing to spiritual using the connection of God—revelation, impartation, the Bible, His presence, etc.—as a representation of food. Thousands of years ago and yet no different than today, people were hungry. Their cabinets may have had food but nothing seemed to satisfy (see Micah 6:14 and Haggai 1:6). God…God?...Well, He was once in their lives—so they thought—with the miracles of provision in the desert and God speaking to people. And yet in this time, not so much; and not by God’s choice or design. And as Judges repeatedly said, “everyone did what was right in their own eyes”. God was to be pushed out of people’s lives for a number of reason but primarily it boils down to, we will take care of ourselves our way and God can just keep spinning galaxies and flinging stars in their place. If one was spiritual or religious, good on you mate. But if you chose to exclude God or even the gods of the land, eh to each their own. And the man who was supposed to give them hope—Eli the prophet—had grown deaf to the voice of God. 1 Samuel 3:2, records the sad state of Eli. I have said something for many years only because I have seen it to be true: when man refuses to see, God will make it so he won’t see (physically and/or spiritually). God’s appointed vessel was good to feed himself and his family but refused to feed the people what they desperately needed: a word from God. 1 Samuel 3:1 says, “…And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation.” In other words, what starts in the head and was supposed to flow to the pew was not even being received in the head and so the church was silent. Across America there are churches that are silent. There may be lots of noise. There may be a lot of pride and ego on display with the preacher/pastor building his fan base and comfort. There may be a lot of things said. There may be a lot of plans and things being done. But the Church (in general) is silent. And what a tragedy it is when and if God does speak to the head—the pastor/preacher—but he refuses to declare or repent and declare God’s Word, the Church is starving. The church is malnourished.
And what is God to do? Many modern preachers are no different than the mediums and wizards spoken of in Isaiah 8 with God closing a door saying (Isaiah 8:20-22), “…If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. They will pass through it hard pressed and hungry; and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God, and look upward. Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom and anguish, and they will be driven into darkness.” And one by one men of God—men whom we admired, envied, and invited to speak in our churches—are turning to sexual sin, money abuse, or a host of other things in combination OR they simply walk away and let the people of God—His sheep—wither in the fold. People in churches are starving and dying from thirst. Amos 8:11-13 declares, “’Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘That I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the LORD, but shall not find it. In that day the fair virgins and strong young men shall faint from thirst.”
So what can man do? When does peanut butter and crackers become a feast? When does a parched tongue clinging to the roof of our cracked and blister-lipped mouths find water or anything to wet and quench our thirst (see Lamentations 4:4)? The answer lies with two people: the Spirit (the Holy Spirit which we can just simply sum up as God (the Trinity)) and the bride (the church). Revelation 22:17 says, “And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.” (I will intentionally leave out what this verse means as I have exposited on this numerous of times in my writings over the years.) Jesus said in John 6:35, “…I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.”
But how can His rivers of water and His Word for food come into our lives? It is like feeding someone something that they have never had before and refuse to take it as it is good and may even save their life but we fight and kick back. There has to be a desire on our part to want something…something that cannot be provided or manufactured on our own. So Jesus provides us the medicine found in Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” Apart from Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross, we cannot and will not ever be righteous to God and even with mankind. We are all the same—sinners (see Romans 3:23)—and whatever we have tried, could try, bought, stockpiled, whatever cannot save mankind. John 1:12-13 (emphasis added) says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.” So how can we get God to grant righteousness unto us? He already did when as John 3:15-17 (Jesus speaking) says, “that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
That is wonderful news for the unsaved, but what about the one who is not doing his job? John 3:14 (Jesus speaking) says, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up”. We as pastors, preachers, leaders have one task: lift up Jesus. We are not to elevate our comfort, especially on the backs of the sheep we are to feed. We are not to walk away when we have a crisis of faith or we get challenged by laws or courts demanding for us to be silent with the Gospel (see John 21:15-22). Our lives are not do a job and expect for others to just figure it out on their own. We are to unashamedly, continuously, and declaring everything from Genesis to Revelation to feed and water His people. Are you hungry or thirsty? It is meal time. Come!