+ Fullness:
Man was created as a being who eats to get full and be pleased, thanking and blessing God Who blessed him with those great riches out of love and with nothing in return” And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat” ( Genesis 2:9,16). St Paul the apostle points out that God placed in the soul for it to enjoy, being then attracted to Him in thankfulness, praise and inner joy, saying” the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy” ( 1 Timothy 6:17). We saw this beautiful image during the times of the First Church, and how food and eating together were the cause of the encounters of love during the gatherings around the table of the Lord rejoicing with a joyful heart” And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers…. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart……. praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” ( Acts 2:42,46,47).
It becomes clear to us that physical satiety leads to the fullness of the soul which leads to the joy of the heart and soul, and if the soul rejoices, it leads man into the orchestra of the universal praise of God the Creator and the Giver. This is the normal path of man concerning the fullness that God has placed in us to cover all the instincts created in man, the natural ending being his happiness, joy, pleasure, thanksgiving and praise. In this regard we can understand the meaning of the words of the Book” To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled” ( Titus 1:15). Therefore, everything that God created is good in itself, but the way man deals with things is what determines what is pure from what is unclean, what is permitted and what is not allowed” For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer” ( 1Timothy 4:4-5).
Fullness is a sign of richness, David talked to God saying” You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” ( Psalm 16:11). Anyone who walks before God as a lamb led by his Shepherd will enjoy the Devine fullness” I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless” ( Genesis 17:1). And all who are satisfied in the Lord will be glad and full by Him” Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength” ( Nehemiah 8:10). The satisfied soul tells about the riches of God without words, just through the behavior and daily actions, show the presence of God’s riches in front of everyone” A satisfied soul loathes the honeycomb, But to a hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet” ( Proverbs 27:7).
My beloved ones in the Lord, our souls won’t be full except in the Lord, He is the source of satisfaction, and only in Him will the soul be satisfied. It is the experience of numerous throughout history. And here is saint Augustine, who lived for a long time rejecting God, indulging in all kinds if impurities and lusts, and despite of all his knowledge, philosophy and earthly wisdom, when he knew the Lord the Savior, he said in his prayers” I was so late in knowing You and Your love. Our soul will remain confused and thirsty until it finds comfort in You. ” The satisfaction in the Lord is to make Him the Master and Leader of all our lives in secret and in public. Praying to Him continuously, and being guided by His words in the Bible in the matters of our lives, seeking His acceptance above the whims of ourselves by obeying His commandments at all costs. His blood has been paid for our salvation, what is more precious in our lives than Him?!
However, there is another satisfaction away from God, that satan presents to us through the world that was placed in the wicked. In this the Lord bears witness to us, saying” Be astonished, O heavens, at this, And be horribly afraid; Be very desolate,” says the Lord.
“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water” ( Jeremiah 2:12-13). And satisfaction does not come to man from outside, but from God dwelling in him. Solomon can summarize his experience as” I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure”; but surely, this also was vanity. I said of laughter—“Madness!”; and of mirth, “What does it accomplish?” I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives.
I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. I acquired male and female servants, and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments of all kinds.
So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, For my heart rejoiced in all my labor; And this was my reward from all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done And on the labor in which I had toiled; And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun. The End of the Wise and the Fool Then I turned myself to consider wisdom and madness and folly; For what can the man do who succeeds the king?— Only what he has already done. Then I saw that wisdom excels folly As light excels darkness” ( Ecclesiastes 2:1-13).
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Hunger:
There is a kind of hunger that leads to death, and another that leads to life. We read about the warning of Sennacherib the king of Assyria to the people in Jerusalem, saying” Does not Hezekiah persuade you to give yourselves over to die by famine and by thirst, saying, “The Lord our God will deliver us from the hand of the king of Assyria”? ( 2 Chronicles 32:11). And in the Book of Isaiah the Lord says” I will kill your roots with famine, And it will slay your remnant” ( Isaiah 14:30).
Yet, The hunger of the body that leads to death is not the only one that we hear about in the Bible, there is the hunger for the living Word of God, and if man does not pay attention and run to eat the Word, it will inevitably lead to the way of his death.
So let us pay attention to the hunger that is praised by God” Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled” ( Matthew 5:6). Here,the fullness is in Christ- the Branch of righteousness and the Word of God- fills the soul, and if the soul is satisfied, the whole person will be full” A satisfied soul loathes the honeycomb, But to a hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet” ( Proverbs 27:7). Note that the soul does not eat honey, but the body is the one who eats, yet the Book shows us the power of self-fulfillment and how to bear the weakness of the body and its needs to what is superior. God is the true bread to all our lives. He is the Word of life to whom we hunger, eat, be full and not die. Let us beware not to be negligent of the Word of God that is in our hands, in every house and that is heard at churches and among ministers in every place, lest the Lord be angry” Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God, “That I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, And from north to east; They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, But shall not find it” ( Amos 8:11-12).
O Beloved of the Lord, haven’t we wasted enough time in laziness away from the Word of God?! Today, if you hear His voice within you, calling you to His Living Word, do not harden your hearts or delay. For the times are shortened and the evil days, and you might dear reader yearn while reading those words to open your Holy Bible to take the word in you to saturate your spiritual hunger. I hope that if you have felt this to leave everything and hear and read what the Lord wants to tell you through His Living Word. He promised us that He is” the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” ( John 6:35).
The hunger to the Lord is filled by His broken Body and His blood that was shed for the forgiveness of our sins and for our eternal life, so we live, in Him we live, move and exist” I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world…. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him” ( John 6:51,56). Let us come forward to communion with this blessed hunger, with true repentance and we will fall before the Lord, longing to be with Him, and He will satisfy us, purify us and revive us. It is sweet to end the word with this love song” Yes, in the way of Your judgments, O Lord, we have waited for You; The desire of our soul is for Your name And for the remembrance of You. With my soul I have desired You in the night, Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early; For when Your judgments are in the earth, The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness” ( Isaiah 26:8-9).