The Insatiable Belly

2006-05-23

Words of a philosopher

Within us, each and every one of us, there is a cavity. There is a void that needs to be filled, and this void is an appetite all its own. It drives us to do everything that we do; this hole is the governor of our behavior. From the depths of the earth to the heights of the heavens, across mountains and plains and continents and oceans, humankind has sought to satisfy the appetite of this cavity and to dull the pain this void perpetuates. As long as humankind has been fallen, we have been searching, but no satisfaction is found. We are left emptier than we were before.

But Jesus came and offered to us something new: “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38). We long for a relationship with God, to be right with him, and to have significance in His plan. Jesus offers us this today. He died for our sins and rose from the dead. Our sins are paid in full when we trust in Him, and we will share in the resurrection of the dead in the Last Day unto eternal life.

When Jesus said the words above, the word belly is this same cavity spoken of above. The one who never trusts in Christ will never know the rivers of living water. The twenty-first century Christian is walking a dangerous tightrope: to continue to trust in Christ or lapse into the old way of living. Though we know Christ, we place other things in our lives to try to find personal validity in them. This word “belly” is used in Romans 16:18 and Philippians 3:19: we can either find satisfaction and self-worth in Jesus or we can make the appetite itself our god, searching for anything to fill the void where we have grieved the Spirit. Christ really is the only way, the only truth, and the only life; we will never see the Father without Him.

Somehow we must identify what we trust in for contentment. I trust in and find contentment in other things all the time, and you do the very same. When we find contentment in anything other than Christ, our behavior will show it. When sins of action become visible in our lives, this is the sign of warning. When we find contentment in Christ alone, likewise our behavior will reflect God’s grace pouring out. Do not be afraid to give up your personal agenda to serve only Christ; only then can we be fully used of God to move closer to Him and help others to do the same.

Remember the Lord in all things.