What Do you CRAVE??

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."

Matthew 5:6 NIV

CRAVE: –verb (used with object)

1. to long for; want greatly; desire eagerly: to crave sweets; to crave affection.

2. to require; need: a problem craving prompt attention.
3. to ask earnestly for (something); beg for.
4. to ask (a person) earnestly for something or to do something.
–verb (used without object)
5. to beg or plead (usually fol. by for).

Origin:

bef. 1000; ME craven, OE crafian; akin to ON krefja to demand, lay claim to

Synonyms:

1. yearn for, hunger for.

Dictionary.com Unabridged

Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2010

According to the Dictionary definitions above, crave is a verb, which like love, is an action word. To crave something is to strongly desire it. Usually you are filling an empty spot in your life. For example, most people throughout the day crave FOOD, therefore they are desiring to satisfy a hunger. Sometimes, through the day I find myself rather dry, and I crave a DRINK. Desperately enough, I join with the Preschoolers and lick icicles and 'clean' snow, much to the dismay of others. LOL! I wish to satisfy a thirst. However, one of the most important cravings of all is LOVE. People have an empty spot in their lives and hearts, and it can only be filled by love. This LOVE can only come from God! Others may try to fill this void with love, but it is all superficial, unless it is the love of our Lord.

To know God personally, and be in a relationship with Him is awesome, it is the BEST thing that can happen to a person! He can fill all our HUNGER and THIRST cravings... but we have to be just that, HUNGRY and THIRSTY for more. No one should be, or could be satisfied with just a little bit, we need it ALL, and more. We need to overflow with the love of God, that's how we can show His love to others.

Jesus talks of His 'living water' which we can drink, and never be thirsty again, in John 4:13&14. "Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 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.”

We need to pray, seek His face, read His word, truly worship Him, and just soak in His presence daily. This isn't just a one-time filling. Most people think they can run on a 'one-time filling'. How many times do you eat or drink in a day? How many times do you do any of the above things I mentioned about thirsting after God? To increase our faith, we need to do just that! We even need to do it more than once a day. Most people just think that's what Sunday's are for. We come together, get re-filled and then we're set for another week. However, we need to get in God's face daily, so we can stay connected Monday through Saturday.

Do you want to run on EMPTY or do you want to be FILLED? Our Scripture today says that we can be FILLED! All we need to do is hunger and thirst after righteousness. Who is the perfecter of our faith, and the only righteous one? GOD! We need to hunger and thirst after Him, and then we will see our FAITH arise.

We need to increase our FAITH... when we pray, we don't just pray to pray, we should be praying to see God answer. Not many of us can actually say they have seen an answer to their prayers, at least not right away. But, we should keep on praying in faith anyways. In the Bible, Jesus tells us to have 'faith like a child'. (Matt 18:1-6, "At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, 'Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?' He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: 'I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.'")

A child's faith is a sweet and special thing... they are filled with such wonder and awe, and they hardly have any doubts. If you say you are going to do something, then they believe that you will do it. If God says He will do something, they can easily trust Him. Whereas we as adults, have a hard time trusting anymore, because of past hurts, failures, and seemingly unanswered prayers. A child is quick to act on their faith too, which is something we need to do to show that we have faith. We cannot just say we have faith without deeds. It says in the Word, in James 2:14-18 (NIV) "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, 'You have faith; I have deeds.' 'Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.'" We as adults can pray until we are blue in the face (or so the saying goes), and then not act upon our faith. But we need to start acting on it. I need to remind myself too, that faith without works/actions/deeds is dead.

If we are praying for rain, we need to start bringing our umbrellas to the prayer meeting!

I close with a cute little story that I love, being a woman of FAITH. This story can be found in "Stories for the Heart" - Compiled by Alice Gray. (pg 106)

 

The Red Umbrella

Retold by Tania Gray

As the drought continued for what seemed an eternity, a small community of midwest farmers were in a quandary as to what to do. The rain was important not only in order to keep the crops healthy, but to sustain the townspeople's very way of living. As the problem became more urgent, the local church felt it was time to get involved and planned a prayer meeting in order to ask for rain.

In what seemed a vague remembrance of an old Native American ritual, the people began to show. The pastor soon arrived and watched as his congregation continued to file in. He slowly circulated from group to group as he made his way to the front in order to officially begin the meeting. Everyone he encountered was visiting across the aisles, enjoying the chance to socialize with their close friends. As the pastor finally secured his place in front of his flock, his thoughts were on the importance of quieting the crowd and starting the meeting.

Just as he began asking for quiet, he noticed an eleven-year old girl sitting in the front row. She was angelically beaming with excitement and laying next to her was her bright red umbrella, poised for use. The beauty and innocence of this sight made the pastor smile to himself as he realized the faith this young girl possessed that the rest of the people in the room seemed to have forgotten.

For the rest had come just to pray for rain... she had come to see God answer.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, I just thank you once again for you being you. Your love surpasses all, and you are the Creator of all of us each individually. You made us all unique individuals, yet all with an empty hole in our hearts that can only be filled by You. Help us to hunger and thirst after you, never being satisfied with a once-a-week dose of Your love. Lord I pray that you will help us increase our faith, let us not be happy with faith the size of a mustard seed, but fill us once again with the wonder and awe that we once had. Let us never lose sight of the prize at the end of the 'race of life'. Eternal life with You and Your Son. Give us that child-like faith, and the innocence to believe in You and the things that You said You will do, and the things that You have yet to do, in and through us. Help us act in faith as well. Remind us when we pray, that we should be acting upon our faith in such a way that others will see and take note, and it will help them increase their faith as well, and live out their faith as well. Guide us, direct us and lead us into ways of Your knowledge, wisdom and understanding. Help us remember that Your ways are higher than our ways, and we need not know all that You know. Help us remember that we are not Your advisors, yet You are ours! We ask all these things in the name of Jesus, AMEN!