FROM the previous posting, None But The Hungry Heart 1-5 –Love Draws And Conforms:
“If you feel the drawing of God within, cherish it as you would cherish a great treasure. If you are aware of a deep hunger, if you are entering into a closer walk with Him, do not look upon it carelessly, nor treat it lightly. But if you do not feel the divine drawing and hunger for God, cry to Him that He will give it you; and ever remember that the desire for hunger is the beginning of hunger, and that you cannot feed upon the Lord Jesus Christ until you are spiritually hungry.”
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IMMEDIATELY the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” Mark 9:24.
I LOVE that verse. It is the prayerful cry of a humble heart that knows, comprehends, and owns its heart limitations. It coincides with a critically important sentence in the above excerpt:
But if you do not feel the divine drawing and hunger for God, cry to Him that He will give it you; and ever remember that the desire for hunger is the beginning of hunger. In other words, ask and you shall receive.
I DO not know when this was first said to me, but it ever burns within my memory, and oft repeated to others – “Are you willing to be made willing?” It is in reference to Phil. 2:12-13:
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
WHEN I was faltering with indecision and commitment when a faithful brother, pastor, mentor – I can’t recall who – but a loving and caring person wisely asked “Are you willing to be made willing?” pointing me to Phil 2:12-13, saying, “because if you are willing to be made willing, God will wiggle your willer for the asking.” That may not be eloquent theology, but it is no less true and it sure stuck. “Are you willing to be made willing?” Ask and you shall receive. We ask for a lot of things, but don’t always ask for the right things – James 4: 3.
CHOICES, it is all about choices, “Lord, what would you have me to do?” Acts 9:6. If you want it a little more eloquent, Augustine said it this way: “Lord command what you will and grant what you command!” Phil 1:6 fits well here: “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
SO is your heart hungry? No? Pray that it would be (Psa. 139: 23-24) as you do so, we take another look from Miles Stanford’s devotional, None But The Hungry Heart.
In the inexorable riches of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10; Isa 30:15; Job 2:10; Jas. 1:2; Prov. 21:30
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1-18. Developed Gift
“But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil” (2 Thess. 3:3).
Though we receive our faith from Him, it must be developed in us by Him. Undeveloped faith never progresses beyond the babe-in-Christ, milk-of-the-Word stage. “But solid food is for adults-that is, for those who through constant practice have their spiritual faculties carefully trained to distinguish good from evil. Therefore leaving elementary instruction about Christ, let us advance to mature manhood” (Heb. 5:14 & 6:1, Wey.).
“You will never learn faith in comfortable surroundings. God gives us promises in a quiet hour; He seals our covenants with great and gracious words. Then He steps back and waits while we believe; then He lets the tempter come, and the test seems to contradict all that He has spoken. It is then that faith wins its crown. Then is the time to look into His face and say, ‘I believe, Lord, that it shall be done as it was told me.’”
“Without trials of faith we should all be ruined. These trials give us opportunities of linking on to the mighty promises of God and finding through the trials come blessing that wonderfully glorifies Him, or else, missing God, turns the blessing into a burden that fills the heart with weariness and pain.” -G.W.
“Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy” (James 5:11).
