He's Your Absolute Only Hope

You have a hunger deep inside you for things you can’t quite seem to satisfy. The reason I know this is true about you is that it’s true about me as well. It’s true about everyone around you, even that person who seems like they have it all together. No matter who you are, you’re hungry, and no matter what you do to try and fill up, the hunger always comes back.

You’re hungry for acceptance. You’re hungry for worth. You’re hungry for love. You want to be wanted. You want to be special. You want people to miss you when you’re gone and you want the room to go crazy when you finally show up. You’re hungry for a life where your needs are met and things around you are stable, steady and peaceful. You want to know where that next meal is coming from and you don’t want to have to be afraid about that. There are so many things you’re hungry for and the problem is that no matter what you do to fill up, it only works for a little while before the hunger comes back.

Having great friends feels awesome and it seems to fill you up. Being in love is intoxicating and really seems to work to satisfy that hunger. Having lots of money or a great job feels good and kinda works. Getting the grades, making the team, winning the game, getting the guy or girl, accomplishing your dreams - these all feel so good and they feel like they work to fill us up and tell us who we are, but then something terrible happens.

We get hungry again. We don’t fill up as easily as before. We need more this time. Friends let you down, love grows cold, there’s a bad breakup, the economy crashes, you get fired, you get hurt, you fail a test, you lose a game, your dream dies. Who are you now? What do you do when you’re hungry? Where can you go? Your heart has a seemingly insatiable need to be filled with love and worth and so many other things. Where can you fill up forever?

Did you know that the miracle of Jesus feeding the five thousand is the only one that is recorded in all four of the Gospels? Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all tell us about different miracles, but this is the only one they all mention. It’s extremely important. It’s vital. There’s something going on here that we must understand. One really weird thing about this story is that even though all the Gospels talk about it, none of them explain exactly how Jesus multiplied that one little lunch to feed thousands. How did He do it? What did it look like?

That’s something we want to know, but they don’t tell us, and I think there’s a good reason for that. If they told us how Jesus did this, we would try to replicate it ourselves. We would try to repeat it, bottle it up and sell it, but we can’t. We can’t understand what Jesus did that day. We are all desperately hungry and we need to be filled, but we can’t do anything about it on our own. Only Jesus can fill us up and I can’t even tell you how He does it. The only thing I know is that He fills me up and I need to go to Him every time to get what I need. You can’t feed yourself and nothing you try to do will ever satisfy your hunger, but Jesus can miraculously and eternally give you what you really need.

{LeeYounger} / {Photo}