How do we set up ourselves for greater desire for intimacy with God and spiritual growth? Or maybe do you desire to know God more and more in your relationship with Him? Would you want to experience God more than before? May these 3 ways help you cultivate spiritual hunger.
1. Ask for it.
Asking entails humbling ourselves before God, acknowledging that left to our own, we cannot do it. We need God’s power and grace in our lives to enable us to hunger and thirst for more of Him in our lives.
For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened. – Mathew 7:8
Spiritual hunger is something that we cannot manufacture on our own. Asking God is our starting point in all things, developing intimacy requires communication.
2. Develop Spiritual Disciplines.
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. – Hebrews 12:11
Starting new disciplines isn’t always easy at start; but it springs from a heart that is committed to growth and intimacy with the Almighty, not by obligation but of joyful delight. If God is of top priority, then daily spiritual discipline is nonnegotiable.
These are personal disciplines of reading and understanding the Word, reflection, prayer confession, and obedience to the Word.
The more we discipline ourselves, the more we know God, the more we desire for more of Him and growing in trust in Him. Spiritual disciplines are never the means to attain salvation but the means to get deeper in knowledge of God.
3. Preach the Gospel to self and accept it daily.
Our understanding of the gospel directly impacts how we live our lives and so are our misunderstandings about it. We need to be reminded of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and its implications. Reminding ourselves of the Gospel keeps us grounded to our own depravity. Accepting the gospel daily sets us free from our inadequacy and it enables us to live the life to full in Christ.
The gospel leads us to inside-out transformation.
As we end: let me encourage with this promise:
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” – Mathew 5:6 ESV
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” – Mathew 5:6 ESV
MCGONZAGA 