I remember as a little kid being invited to a friend’s house to eat. My friend’s mother made a banquet type meal complete with Chicken Parmesan, spaghetti, salad, garlic bread, and spumoni ice cream. (At least it is my idea of a banquet!) But before I went I didn’t know what I was going to be having for supper. I was afraid that it might be a meal like my mother’s favorite meal. I called this “the meal from hell”. It consisted of a combination of pork chops, liver, or spam, along with broccoli, hominy (which I called agony), and Swanson’s T.V. Corn Bread (whose constitution was much like eating sawdust!) So dreading the possibilities I loaded up beforehand upon good old peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (also known as PB and J). As a result, when I got to my friend’s house, to my surprise my dream feast was being served, but to my disappointment I had absolutely no appetite and therefore ended up passing on the meal. I missed out on the feast because I settled for a sandwich.
I am afraid that many of us are in danger of becoming peanut butter and jelly Christians stuffed with other food that has robbed us of an appetite for God. Every day of life a war goes on in regards to our appetites. Every one of us has all been born with appetites and desires. They dictate what directs us and what satisfies us whether it is the cravings of our physical hunger, the desire for the things that this world offers, or the deep longings of our souls for God.
Augustine said, “Oh Lord thou hast made us for Thyself and our hearts can find no rest except we find it in Thee.”
Restlessness and longing are universal traits of the human heart. God has put eternity in our hearts and we have an inconsolable longing for Him. We are both afflicted and blessed with a chronic restlessness, an insatiable soul-thirst for this reason: that we might keep looking until we find Christ. And that having found him we might be turned back to Him again and again when we taste of other springs and find them bitter. We were made for God. The taste buds of our souls were made to relish fellowship with the Son of God.
No wonder that 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. John 4:14, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."
I have come to understand that salvation is the awakening of our appetites for God. It is a supernatural kind of appetite, unsatisfied by anything found in this world. Jonathan Edwards describes it as "religious affections". “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good”, says the Psalmist (Psalm 34:8). The fact is that once you have tasted the Lord, nothing less will ever satisfy your palette. No wonder, for when we taste of God’s ultimate goodness nothing can compare to the joy and satisfaction that comes from Him.
When I lived in Mexico by Puerto Vallarte in a small village called Punta Mita, my family and I lived on fish. Every day I would have to catch or spear dinner. Unfortunately, I had neither the ability to catch fish nor the availability of many fish at times except Opal Eye (Which is a reef fish full of scales, bones, and tastes awful but is edible). We would eat this every day until one day a fisherman brought us some Red Snapper and Sierra. Once we tasted these delicious fish’s we were never able to be satisfied with Opal Eye again. The more of these we ate the less we desired Opal Eye. Our palettes had been awakened to real fish, good fish, and thus we lost our appetite for Opal Eye’s.
When we are converted God awakens in us we a new appetite for Him and a new delight in God. Saint Augustine describes this in his description of his own conversion when he writes:
“How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys that I once feared to lose was now a joy to part with.You drove them from me, you who are the true sovereign joy. You drove them from me and took their place, you who are sweeter than all pleasure, though not to flesh and blood, you who outshine all light, yet are hidden deeper than any secret in our hearts, you who surpass all honor, though not in the eyes of men who see honor in themselves…Oh Lord my God, my light, my wealth, and my salvation!"
The Bible is full of examples of the creation of this new souls appetite. It is a precious gift of grace from God. As John Piper says, our best havings are our wantings. Throughout the Bible we see people yearning, hungering, thirsting, longing for, and desiring God.
Asaph describes an appetite for God that is so strong that it eliminates all other desires. “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Psalm 75:25-26) David describes this appetite in terms of a deer thirsting for water. “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” (Psalm 42:1-2) Another time David uses similar words to describe his desire for God. “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.” (Psalm 63:1-3) the Apostle Paul went from a man who persecuted Christians to one whose desires had been transformed to cry out. “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better…But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 1:23; 3:7-8)
To be continued...
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