“So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger…” (Deut. 8:3a)
There is a growing hunger rising in many of God’s people concerning prayer. Here’s the trajectory of how this hunger grows over time:
- We take careful notice of a deteriorating condition in the world.
- We attempt change through all of the usual, “hands-on” methods of words, efforts, legislation, etc.
- The condition grows worse.
- We pray, asking God to do something about the condition.
- The condition grows worse.
- We become increasingly stirred in our spirit about the decaying state of our world.
- Our prayers begin to change… “Lord, You are neither silent nor uncaring, yet conditions grow worse. What is happening?”
In these times, the burden we carry for the world gets heavier and heavier, and we can tend toward discouragement in our prayers. But, what if God had other intentions in the hungry-yet-unsatisfied place in which we find ourselves? He does. And it begins with famine. Famine leads to hunger, and hunger leads us to seek supply. Seeking supply will turn us away from the sources that used to feed us, but no longer do, and to the ONE source that always feeds us.
The change in our prayers as the world’s condition deteriorates is a beautiful change, because it is working on the people praying before it works on the condition of the world. God is humbling His praying people and causing them to hunger so that we will return to Him. What if we were to take a break from all of our angst about the world and its condition long enough to realize that the answer God is willing to pour out right now is in answer to this beautiful prayer: “Lord, enter in and change me… let me seek true spiritual food from Your hand only… Teach me to pray in the hungry place of famine… disrupt me to the place where I am satisfied with nothing but You.”
If the body of our Lord Jesus were to seek Him for increased power that comes from decreased self, perhaps an outpouring would flood the church and change the world.
Is the world’s burden too heavy to carry for you? Sit it down for now and carry yourself to the throne of God in surrender. Seek inner, not outer change. Watch what God will do.
AMEN.