"Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
and let your soul delight itself in abundance.”
Isa 55:2 NKJV
At one time or another (if we are honest with ourselves) I’m
sure every church-going Christian has said this in reference to their
church services or Sunday School classes:
“I’m just not getting fed.”
I know
that I have. A couple of weeks ago, the
Lord gave me a mental picture that really spoke to me concerning this and I pray that by sharing it, I can help
someone else.
That particular morning, I read a post/rant from a friend on
Facebook about how we as Christians sit idle in our churches and complain because we are not
being fed instead of picking up the fork and feeding ourselves. It really kicked me in the gut and I began to
see this picture in my head….
Imagine this with me…
The pastor is standing at the front of the church with a
fork in his hand. We are each sitting in
our pews with our families and every person
has a huge plate of food on their lap.
We are all so hungry for the food, but the problem is…we are just
sitting there on our hands. Our children
are sitting there on their hands. And
this just sounds absurd, but we are expecting the preacher to take that one
tiny fork and feed each and every one of us (until we are full) in a 30-45
minute span on Sunday morning. And the
rest of the week? We have the food with us everywhere we go, but do we eat
it? No! We don’t eat all week long! We wait for that one small period of time on
Sunday and expect the preacher to fill us up enough to last until the next
week. AND we expect him and the Sunday
School teachers to fill our kids up enough to last them until the next week.
When I pictured this in my head…it seemed so ridiculous. We certainly would never do that with actual
food-food. If you put a plate full of
food in front of me when I’m hungry, there’s NO WAY that I’m not going to eat
it. If I didn’t have a fork, I’d use my hands!
I PROMISE you, if we were hungry enough, every one of us would find a
way to eat that food.
It’s the same with
spiritual food…if we are hungry enough,
we WILL find a way to eat.
In this day and age, we have access to God’s word- our
spiritual food- 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We have the bible (in multiple versions), bible apps
for our phones, Youtube-where we can watch and listen to any kind of sermon you
can think of, awesome bible teachers that share their teachings and sermons FOR
FREE on the internet, CD’s and flashdrives filled with sermons and biblical
teachings that you can listen to in your car…and so much more. There is an endless supply of spiritual food! So why are so many of us starving
for the word of God that is sitting right there on our laps? Is it because we are waiting for our pastors to
feed us?
I can promise you…there is no possible way that we can get
everything that we need to fill us up for an entire week in that 30-45 minute
span on Sunday morning. Yes, one of the
pastor’s jobs is to feed his flock, but that is just one small part of what he
does as the shepherd. We also have the responsibility
of feeding ourselves and our children.
I hope this gives a new perspective to someone as it has done
for me.
Let’s pick up that fork and feed
ourselves!
“Your words were found, and I ate them,
and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O Lord God of
hosts.” Jeremiah 15:16 NKJV
P.S. (And please don’t try to use the excuse…”If I can feed myself, then I don’t need to go to church.” The bible is VERY clear about assembling ourselves together. Hebrews 10:24-25 NKJV says, “ And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” It’s so important to gather with like-minded believers to encourage and lift each other up.)
