You Satisfy the Hungry Heart

This makes me think of a scripture from Isaiah 55. “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.”

And in John 6:35 Jesus says, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”

How right this is. So often we spend our lives and our labors working for that which does not satisfy. We finish empty and unsatisfied. But as long as we live and draw breath, it is never too late to go to Jesus and receive the true bread which always satisfies—Jesus himself. Jesus was born in Bethlehem and “Beth-lechem” in Hebrew means “House of Bread.” We believe that Jesus the bread of life, was born in Bethlehem, the “House of Bread.”

He as God’s Son can satisfy our hungry hearts like nothing else can.

Augustine was a man born in 354 A.D. in present-day North Africa. Though his mother was a believer in Jesus, young Augustine lived a wild youth until he came to Christ for himself. Later he wrote this about God “Lord, Thou has made us for Thyself, and our souls are restless until they find their rest in Thee.”

Augustine tried it all and he learned that only the Lord can satisfy our hungry hearts.  This is not primarily a matter of the intellect, but a matter of the heart and of the soul. So if you know yourself to be unsatisfied, no matter how old you are, no matter how many missteps you have made, no matter how far down the wrong road you may have gone, call out -cry out- to God. Ask Him to satisfy you, to fill you, and to give you rest in Him. He does, and He will.

(This article first appeared in the Pearland-Friendswood Reporter News October 13, 2010)