TV and newspapers have shown time and time again that famine has broken out in countries around the world. The fathers are trying to work to get food for their wives and children but none is available.

Finally, they begin to rob and steal from others. They are not common criminals; they are just hungry. I have even heard of a gang of men stealing powdered milk from an orphanage to get food for their own children. These men were desperate.

Are you willing to do whatever it takes to find Him?

I saw many starving children in India. Many of them beg in the street all day long just trying to get food to live. However, in the same country, there are those who will take a whole platter of nicely diced vegetables and offer them to an idol. They will place the vegetables before the idol and let them lie there and rot as a sacrifice to that god.

They could eat the food and be healthy themselves, or feed it to their own starving children, but instead they just let it rot.

It seems like a lot of starving Christians do the same thing. They have plenty of opportunities to eat the Word of God. The pastor is preaching with all his heart and teens sit there writing notes to their friends.

God could have fed them, even longed to feed them, but they refused to eat. We could read the Bible like crazy, listen to tapes, and ask our leaders questions if we really wanted to learn more.

Instead, we often starve to death spiritually. We get pulled into ritualistic Christianity. We are all caught up in doing good things to put on a show that we are spiritual, but we forget to hunger for God. We want God's blessing, especially when we are in trouble, but do we want Him?

The Bible says, "…man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord" (Deut. 8:3). You cannot really be alive until you get God's Word in you. Physical bread cannot satisfy a hungry heart. Jesus said, "…I am the bread of life…" (John 6:35).

If you want real life, you have to have real bread.

God promises to fill you if you will just hunger for righteousness. If you are tired of feeling like an empty person or an empty Christian, just get hungry for Him. He will fill you with Himself, and you can take that to the bank!

What to do: pray a prayer of repentance to get all the garbage out of your life that has been filling your mind and your heart. Then you should do something to begin to fill yourself with him and his word. Make a commitment to force-feed yourself the Word of God now.

Source: Quit Playing With Fire by Ron Luce.
Excerpt permission granted by New Leaf Press, Inc.