Soul Starvation

No one enjoys the sight of emaciated children, malnourished from lack of food.  While some of us have only seen pictures of such suffering, starvation and lack of clean water is a reality for millions in the world today.  It is heart-rending to see the vacant stares of the starving, too weak to swat the flies from their eyes and mouths.  Quality food and water are necessities for life, and for some they have become an elusive luxury.  God created our bodies to produce hunger pangs that alert us to our need to eat.  If our bodies do not receive the nutrients required, the body will feed on stores of fat and even muscle tissue to survive, leading to organ failure and death.

Physical starvation is a tragedy only eclipsed by spiritual starvation and death.  What does it profit a man to have all the food and clean water in the world and lose his own soul?  The body is temporary and the soul is eternal.  Through a prophet God said in Amos 8:11-12:  "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. ¹² 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."  Even as we live in a day of abundance yet great lack when it comes to food and water, the same can be said concerning the Word of God.  Many Christians have multiple Bibles, but there remain areas of the world where Bibles are scarce.  Even Christians who have Bibles on their night stands and listen to sermons every Sunday are starving for the words of the LORD.  Bibles remain closed while other books are consumed.  Instead of God's Word being preached from the pulpit, there is more about politics, opinion, morality, and "do's or don'ts."  Funny stories may be entertaining, but it is God's Word our souls hunger for.

If only our spiritual condition was as obvious as that of a starving person!  When we see pictures of suffering children, are you disgusted or feel compassion towards them?  Your response says a lot of the condition of your heart.  We are often blind to the spiritual squalor people live in every day, destitute of any spiritual sustenance.  The truth is, in our natural condition we cannot even see ourselves in truth!  In our blindness, spiritually speaking, humans could be contrasted with people afflicted by anorexia.  No matter how gaunt or haggard the image in the mirror, we see a distorted image of ourselves as muscular, beautiful, and perfect.  Though spiritually starving, we can be deceived to think we are living the "good life."  The sweetness of sin in mouths of men numbs the bitterness of the poison at work in their stomachs.  We might as well be eating refuse.  It takes the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit to impress the truth upon us and bring conviction of sin.

I find it interesting that Jesus compares the Holy Spirit to "Living Water," a life-providing spring granted to all who repent and trust in Jesus.  He told the woman at the well in John 4:13-14, "...Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 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."  Not only are the words of scripture food for our souls, but Jesus is the "Living Bread" which has come down from heaven.  He said in John 6:51, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."  Before Jesus went to the cross, He led His disciples in partaking of the Passover sacrifice.  The next day Jesus would be revealed to all as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world by His death on the cross and subsequent resurrection.

Praise God that we live in a day of abundance concerning His precious Word.  For those who are starving spiritually, all you need to sustain your souls is found in Jesus Christ.  I believe we are living in a day when people are running to and fro, seeking the word of the LORD.  It is not that God has not spoken or no longer speaks, but people are not listening.  God has spoken, but His unadulterated Word does not fit in with their beliefs or opinions.  Because it has been rejected it lays dusty on a shelf.  It has the power of God to give and sustain life, but it is seen by many as outdated and irrelevant.  The days of spiritual famine in which we live are of our own making.  Let us turn back to the naked Word of God and hold fast to what we have.  Let us feed on His faithfulness and the Word which endures forever.  Taste and see that the LORD, He is good!