If you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God (Proverbs 2:3-5).
It is not enough to think that wisdom is a nice thing to have or something that you wouldn’t mind having in your life. Wisdom must be hungered for, desired, pursued. We are to “search for it as for hidden treasure,” with passion and purpose.
That kind of hunger and desire is mentioned elsewhere in Scripture. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled (Matthew 5:6). Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14). As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God (Psalm 42:1).
Unfortunately that desire is not always there. Other things steal my attention and my passion. I snack all day on junk food and then find little hunger for the feast that God has laid out for me.
I remembered something I read in Dr. Paul Brand’s book, The Forever Feast…
“Researchers have conducted bizarre experiments with rats. In these experiments an electrode is implanted directly into the part of the rat’s brain that registers pleasure. If the rat is given the choice of two levers, one that releases food into its dish, and one that switches on direct pleasure without the need to eat, the rat presses the pleasure lever until it dies of starvation. The actual need for food has been separated from the sense of need. The need for food is real, but the sense of pleasure, which is false, results in death.
A similar condition occurs in people with drug addiction. An addict on a succession of “highs” may lose awareness of many of his or her normal body needs. Many lose weight and muscle mass. Consequently, the caricature of the hollow-eyed cadaverous drug addict is sometimes not far from the truth.
What is true of the drug addicted person at a physical level is even more true at the spiritual level of large numbers of the human race. When Jesus said “Happy are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled” he was not making a distinction between those who need righteousness as compared to those who don’t need it. We are all in need, but we don’t all know it or feel the need.
Friends and pastors may see that a person is in need of salvation and of the work of the Spirit, but there is little they can do until the person is hungry for God. We have to pray that God will awaken within this person an appetite for what he has to give. Then there is hope!
…We should never assume that the loss of spiritual appetite happens only to other people. There are times when one’s own spiritual life may be at a low ebb and the Bible seems lifeless and dull. This is not a time to stop feeding. Loss of appetite may become progressive, and even terminal, as in kwashiorkor [a disease in the malnourished in which they lose their appetite altogether]. These are times for discipline; for forced feeding. Daily Bible reading and prayer and fellowship in God’s house will tide us through.
One day your appetite will be stimulated. Words will leap out again and taste good. One day the spiritual saliva will flow again as God’s word becomes relevant to your felt need, and you realize you have passed through a transient period of anorexia. The food has become as appetizing as ever.
Some wandered in desert wastelands…. They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress…. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds to men, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things (Ps 107:4-9).”
Lord, increase my appetite for Your truth, for Your presence, for Your love.