Valentine’s Day makes people hungry!
Hungry for love
Hungry for romance
Hungry for their special someone
And if they don’t have one
They are hungry for comfort
hungry for validation
hungry for companionship
hungry for chocolates …
There is nothing wrong with any of those things and honestly, even the hunger itself isn’t wrong
The hunger we feel in our body for food is a natural function, purposed to indicate a lacking and to notify you that your body has a legitimate need that you have to address if you want your body to continue to live.
So is the hunger in our hearts!
The desires
The hungers
… they are not bad!
I know, you probably never heard that in a spiritual setting before
But let me take it a step further
Our hungers are from God!
Don’t believe me?
Go to Ecclesiastes 3:11 NKJV
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.”
- God put our desire to live forever in our hearts
Matthew 6:31-33 NKJV
““Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
- The needs are legitimate to God
Deuteronomy 8:2-3 NKJV
“And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”
- God allows us to hunger
Consider that a baby’s need is for milk from his or her mother
If the hunger was considered bad, and that hunger was never addressed,
That baby would not survive
The hunger is the indication that there is a real need that without being met, can have devastating consequences
Let’s take a step and agree that our hungers are not bad!
That does not mean that bad can’t come from hunger!
Sure, hunger is the evidence of a need, but our response to hunger is our choice!
Here is where things could go real good or real bad
Let’s look at our need on a day like Valentine’s Day
We usually pay some attention to our need for affection, romance, companionship and love on a daily basis …
… but in America especially, no day triggers that hunger more than Valentine’s Day
It’s everywhere you go; it’s the subject of every commercial and if you look on Instagram, even for one second on Valentine’s Day, you know you will see something that showcases how loved someone else is while at the same time, it will showcase how unloved you feel.
It’s like Valentine’s Day is the gourmet buffet you are looking at through the window, as you are starving outside, in the cold.
It is oftentimes formulated to make you feel hungry for love.
Remember that your hunger for love is not bad!
Your hunger to be special is not bad
Your hunger to be noticed is not bad
Even your hunger to be someone’s “everything”
IS NOT BAD!
Then, what is bad?
How you go about feeding that hunger!
We may not like to admit it, but we know the two options we face when our tummy starts growling.
We know the best option!
We know what is packed with nutrients and full of sustenance.
We also know the other option
The other option is quick, it tastes great but will not fill us with nutrition!
It will go straight through us;
not making us healthier, rather making us more sick
Same goes for the food we put in our souls
The hunger is real!
The hunger is good!
But the food isn’t always good.
People are so quick to blame the hunger
But the real problem is the response to the hunger!
Some are quick to pop a pain reliever but they will not address the habit that developed the condition that cased the pain, in the first place.
We all have done it before.
We address the wrong problem.
So, if the problem is our response to the soul hunger on Valentine’s Day ...
how should we respond to the soul hunger we feel on Valentine’s Day?
Just as we ought to choose the most nutritious food to satisfy our bodily hunger,
We need to choose to feed our hearts what will satisfy it’s hunger and fill it with what will make it healthy and strong!
Filling your heart with the affirmation of people;
Feeding your soul with the validation that others give you;
Even basing your acceptance on whether or not you have a romantic partner who gives you roses and chocolates on Valentine’s Day…
It may instantly make you feel “loved” and special, but that feeling lasts just about as long as it takes to snap the picture of it and post it on Instagram.
People are not perfect.
They all fail like we do.
Even that man you saw in the pictures, who took his wife on a romantic date, on the 14th!
Yes, that one!
He is also the man who messed up and didn’t pay attention to his wife’s recount of her day, on the 15th!
… and lost his temper, on the 16th.
… and left his clothes on the floor, on the 17th.
You wouldn’t have known because he didn’t post a status about those days…
Everyday, we get hungry again!
and everyday, nobody is able to fill us up.
Even if they could, they would empty themselves and starve just so we could feel full.
They were never created to be consumed by us!
They were never meant to fill us
“For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!”
Galatians 5:14-15 NKJV
There is only One who can fill you …
Only One who loves you truly and perfectly everyday and only One who never fails
There is only One who never runs dry and never needs you to fill Him up …
That One is
Jesus Christ
The Lord Himself is love …
“And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”
I John 4:16 NKJV
That love we seek,
That love we hunger for,
We desperately feed on what will never satisfy;
When all along, the only love that fills our soul and never leaves us starving for more, is Love Himself.
We never had to fill God before He filled us
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 NKJV
While we never produced anything for God, He still showed consistently faithful love, by choosing to give us acceptance when we deserved rejection
In fact, He takes our rejection everyday, yet He never rejects us!
From Genesis to Revelation, He chose to chase after our heart, though we choose everyday to run from Him!
So, this Valentine’s Day…
If you were looking for a romantic movie to watch and feel for a moment, what true love looks like…
A love that lays down His life, so the one He loves can live…
John 15:13 NKJV
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
If you want a love story that will challenge everything you ever believed about love
Look no further than the God who left the 99 He had close, to love the 1 He had lost
Matthew 18:11-14 NKJV
“For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.”
That is love
That love you so hunger for …
The love that approves of you and accepts you for who you are …
That One who loves you more than anything …
That One Who made you His EVERYTHING!
It’s God.
And He never needed you to be perfect,
He sent His perfect Son to pay what you owed, so that nothing could separate you from Him!
He loves you regardless of your worst mistakes
He loves you even if you don’t deserve it
He loves you even if you choose to seek love in all the empty, dry places
He still chases after you
You are who He loves!
So, whether you have a Valentine or not;
Do not forget your First Love
Do not forget the One Who loved you enough to create you;
The One Who loved you enough to save you;
The One Who loved you enough to be with you no matter how far you have ran from His love…
The One Who chose you
The One Who made a fool of Himself to show you the Love He has for you
The One Who has always loved you
The One Who loves you every second of everyday
The One Who will love you forever
And by this LOVE,
you will be full.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®.
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
