A Godly Hunger

A Godly Hunger

“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”

John 4:34

IN WORD How do we honor God? One of the best ways is to breathe His desires and to crave His will. There aren’t many of us in His body who do that consistently; it isn’t very natural, and it doesn’t appeal at all to the fallen self. But if we knew the glory and the peace of being at one with His will, we’d have no greater craving. God’s desire for us is for us to desire only Him.

To desire God goes beyond the need for His fellowship that we so desperately seek. It is a desire with feet. It works. It isn’t content with only the emotional side of the relationship; it must put godly emotions and allegiances into action. Our desire for Him necessarily includes a desire to work with Him. There’s no way to separate our love and our will.

Jesus didn’t seek to do His Father’s will only from a sense of obligation. There was no drudgery in it. It wasn’t a matter of gritting His teeth and getting it done so He could go about His other business. There was no other business. This was His food—His life, His breath, His passion. Doing the Father’s will was the entire preoccupation of His life. And at the end of John’s Gospel, Jesus tells His disciples that they are sent out in the same way the Father sent Him (20:21). His food is their food. His love of the Father’s will was to be theirs. And ours.

IN DEED How can we accomplish such a thing? There’s no way other than God’s way: He fills us with His Spirit. It is He who is working in us, both to will and to work for the Father’s purposes (Philippians 2:13). Not only does He give us what our hearts desire, He gives us the very desires in our hearts (Psalm 37:4). He puts them in there, if we’ve submitted our hearts to Him with delight.

Is God’s will your food? Do you seek to accomplish His will as a bonus to pursuing your own, or is His the only one you really care about? The single-mindedness of being passionate about His will is liberating. Crave His will alone.

The will of God is the measure of things.

—AMBROSE