Hunger for More

I’ve been hungry a lot lately. Ever heard of loseit.com? I never had either until a couple of weeks ago. It coincided with my trying on a pair of jeans that had just come out of the dryer. Don’t know if it was the dryer or me, but I didn’t want to take any chances.

I downloaded the app and got to work.

Let me tell you about lose it dot com. You pretty much enter everything that goes into your mouth into this application, and you find out exactly how many calories it is, and how many calories you still get before you exceed your limit for the day. You find out pretty quickly that when you don’t watch what you eat, you eat a lot more than you think.

Needless to say, I’ve been hungry a lot lately. So when I came across Genesis 25:29-34, I knew exactly what Esau was going through.

Esau was the unfortunate hairy twin, his brother Jacob the iron chef. On that fateful day Esau had been outside working hard all day. He comes home to the smell of the best stew of his life. He’s dying to eat. He’s starving to death. He’ll do anything to satisfy his hunger.

By the end of the meal he’s lost it all: the birthright, the blessing, his brother’s respect, you name it.

We all know what it feels like to be hungry. It may not be food you crave, but you know what it feels like to want something so bad it hurts. You may find these principles about hunger helpful as you consider your next meal:

• Hunger makes you lose perspective of what you have. Esau was the eldest and rightful heir of Isaac. The birthright was his and it was far more valuable than any pot of stew, no matter how good the cook. When hunger hits, perspective is lost. You may be hungry for pornography while your beautiful wife is lying next to you in bed. You get the point. When you feel hungry, stop and consider what you have. It’s not worth losing it all over a meal that will be literally gone in a few hours.

• Hunger greatly exaggerates what you don’t have. All of a sudden the red blow of soup was the only thing Esau could think of. You may be hungry for just one thing in your life, but pretty quickly it becomes the only thing you think about. You wake up thinking about it, you go to bed worrying about it. You blame God for not fixing it, you walk around with a big chip on your shoulder and an edge to your prayers. You just know you’d be happy if you got that one bowl of soup. Esau learned the hard way that you won’t. Learn from his story.

• Hunger is an opportunity not a curse. God puts hunger in our hearts to remind us that we are never satisfied until we are satisfied in him. Do you feel like something is missing in your life? Turn to God. He longs to fill your need. Look to him in that area of hunger. He is big enough to meet you exactly where you long to be filled. Next time you’re hungry for anything, get the word of God out and talk to Him. You won’t regret it and you’ll be richer for it.

• How you respond to your hunger reveals what’s in your heart. Hunger is not wrong in of itself. It’s what you do with your hunger that’s the issue. If you turn to sin in your hunger, your future is at risk. In Esau’s case, he lost it all. If you read the rest of his story, you can’t help but feel sadness and sorrow for this guy who gratified himself in the short term but lost it all in the long haul. What are you gonna do with your hunger? The fact is, you will feel hungry at some point today. What are you going to feed on when you do? Your way or God’s way?

My pastor said this recently: The reason we don’t change is not that we don’t’ want to, but that we want other things more.

It’s true. Esau likely wanted the bowl of soup and his birthright. But he wanted the bowl of soup more. I have a feeling he would later regret his choice.

What do you want most in your life?

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