Craving Christ

 

When I was a kid, I would eat tomatoes like crazy. It didn't matter what kind, if they were available, I was stuffing them into my mouth. I would eat them like apples, or sliced with salt and pepper. I don't know when, but that desire for tomatoes changed over the course of many years. I think it was around the same time I met Little Debbie Cakes. I had once desired what was healthy and good for me. But when I was introduced to the sweet, sugary reality of those cakes, it was like all that was healthy for me stepped into the background. I began to crave sugar constantly, getting angry when I didn't get it. This taught me some powerful things in the last few years. 

What you consume, you will crave. 

I stopped craving tomatoes because I stopped eating them. I craved sugar because it was all I ate. 

When I consume social media, I crave attention and recognition. 

When I consume media and listen to influencers, I crave more things. More money. More time. More stuff. 

When I consume sugar, I crave the wrong fuel for my body. 

Then, I read this book called Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst, and she talked about how we are beings who were made to crave, created to crave, the presence of our Holy God. But somewhere along the line, we started consuming counterfeit loves, and our hearts began to crave things that we were never meant to. 

What we consume, we crave.  

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said "Blessed are those who HUNGER and THIRST for RIGHTEOUSNESS, for they will be filled." 

When you look that verse up on Google, this is what first pops up. This is a well-known passage from the Beatitudes in the Bible (Matthew 5:6), where Jesus declares that those who passionately crave God's justice and moral goodness will be completely satisfied.

If we are not consuming God's word, if we are not hungering for His presence, we will not be truly filled. If we do not crave intimacy with God, we will look into the world for things that will satisfy, and they never will. We are people who were created by God to CRAVE GOD ALONE! But when we constantly consume what is counterfeit, we will not crave what is Holy. 

St. Augustine wrote this reality in his "Confessions". He said, "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you". 

Our hearts are hungry until they are satisfied in Jesus. 

Our souls are longing until they are filled in Christ. 

And the truth is that we can change the things that our bellies crave by changing our diet. It takes hard work, patience, endurance, and humility. But if all we consumed was fruits, vegetables, and meats that God made, over time it would be all we would desire to eat. We can crave tomatoes and carrots and celery! We can crave blueberries and strawberries instead of rich, fudgy brownies. 

And we can crave Christ, even if right now, you might not be craving Him. I've seen it happen! I was so consumed with thrifting at one point it was all I ever thought about. But when Jesus asked me to give it up, I did, and I was released from its hold in my life. I was thinking yesterday how much my desire has changed for thrifting since God spoke into that part of my life. I like to go sometimes still, but I don't buy everything I see like I used to. 

God can change the cravings of our soul, but it requires our active participation. It means we must actively lay aside what is unimportant for what is most important. It means we must surrender the worldly for Him who is Holy. And over time, you'll notice that you don't crave those things like you used to. 

Let us be people who lay down the counterfeit loves and instead crave Christ as our one and only pursuit.