I was listening to a sermon on the way to school a couple days ago and I finally got the answer to the question that’s been nagging me. The question is, “If God is all satisfying, then why do we have to keep on going to Him to get satisfied? If He is truly satisfying, then shouldn’t going to Him satisfy us once and for all and thus we would never desire anything else?” But my personal experience tells me that even though I was satisfied with God alone, after a while, I follow after things which tells me that I’m hungering spiritually again.

I was assuming that if God is all satisfying, then once should be good enough to last for all eternity. But the preacher brought up the point that the reason why we get hungry IS so that we can get satisfied. If we never felt hunger, then we wouldn’t desire to be satisfied either. Just like eating a good meal, he said. However full we might be after a meal, about 5 hours later, we are hungry again. But that hunger is a good thing because it sets us up to be satisfied again by the next meal.

So, in that sense, our hunger is a reminder that we can be satisfied. The way I used to think is that hunger is a bad thing and thus needs to be eliminated altogether. But now I see that hunger is simply a way for us to be satisfied. That means if I am hungering to be loved, approved, excited, validated, I’m really hungering for God!

Why would God make it thus – that we must go to Him daily to be satisfied again and again rather than satisfying us once and for all? I am guessing that there is a greater satisfaction in Him this way than other. Perhaps it will be different when we go to heaven, but while we are on earth, our satisfaction slowly leaks and we must be filled with Him again and again.

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

Psalm 90:14

Get filled again and again in the morning. Our hunger is simply a reminder that there is a God who can satisfy us!

PH