Scripture reading:

Belly Ache

“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!” Psalm 34:8

 

O dear Lord, for goodness sake,

Please relieve my belly ache!

This gnawing hunger in my soul

This empty void, this gaping hole;

Is there nothing that can fill

This emptiness that makes me ill?

 

I thought I’d found the remedy

In knowledge and philosophy;

And so I gave myself to learning

Thinking this would stop the churning.

But all my labor was in vain;

My aching soul was still the same.

 

So another path I tried

To quench the thirst I felt inside:

I gave myself to carnal passion,

Worldly pleasure, latest fashion;

But this effort too seemed cursed

And my thirst was only worse.

 

Yet I refused to stop my quest

For I believed that I knew best.

And so I tried a nobler door–

Serve the needy, help the poor.

Surely this would soothe my pain

And help me find some peace again.

 

But the hunger still was there

And now my soul was near despair.

O dear God, is this my fate?

Will nothing ever satiate?

I give up, my quest is through:

Is there something You can do?

 

In the silence, then I heard

A Voice that spoke a simple word:

“Not by bread alone, you see,

If you’re hungry eat of Me.

For my Word is food indeed

It will satisfy your need!”

 

You there, sitting on the pew,

Let these verses speak to you;

And let God, for goodness sake,

Heal you of your belly ache!

Christ is here and he is able

To fill the void; come to his table.

 

If you don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great.  —John Piper

point to ponder • What are you hungry for?

prayer focus • Those looking for soul food in all the wrong places.