Pray for Hunger

With the coming of the new year, has spending more time with God been a renewed desire of yours? Has reading your Bible and praying been put back on a list of things to do more of?

Perhaps you have been at this place before. The first few days, weeks and maybe even months go so well, and then life takes over... again!

At least that's how the struggle seems to play out for me.

I believe that the enemy knows the power and change that comes as we make time for God. I believe that the enemy fights it with everything he has.

There are numerous reasons why this desire in our heart tends to dwindle, fade, and disappear.

I have learned that when I begin to sense that the appetite and desire for the things of God is beginning to fade, I need to pray for hunger.

“Loss of appetite for the good things of God is a sign that some degree of spiritual death has set in.” -- Dee Duke

I ask God to give me a hunger... for Him.

The beauty of this prayer is that I can be confident that every time I pray this request, it is the will of God. He created me for a relationship with Him, and so asking for that very desire and His help must surely please His heart.

I have learned that as God answers my prayer for hunger and the stirring in my heart grows, I need to be ready and willing to take action. I need to already have time scheduled into my day to the satisfy the hunger.

Experience has also taught me that as I meet with Him, as I seek Him, as I call on Him... He will reveal Himself. In the revealing, He exposes those things in me that need to change. Things that need work. Things are not easy, comfortable or flattering.

Am I ready and willing to do the work of change? Am I really prepared to put forth the effort in the midst of the humility of who I am and who He is?

I find that as I pray this and become hungry, my choices and actions determine just how serious my desire for Him really is.