My dog is fed every morning around 11:00 a.m.. Around 10 a.m., she starts hanging around the door. By 10:30, she is staring at the door. For a solid half hour, she’ll just stand and watch the door, waiting for the moment I come out to get her food dish. She won’t do anything else. She’ll glance off occasionally if a bird or squirrel goes by, but for the most part, she’s focused on the door.

Then, the magic moment comes: I open the door! She immediately jumps and runs around in circles. I pick up her dish and go inside to get her food. While I’m inside, she will continue to run in circles, hardly able to contain her little dog self.

When I come out with her food, she sits on the porch, shaking, waiting for me to put the food down. Finally, the dish is on the ground, and I say “OK” to release her to her lunch. All the tingly dog energy is released wolfing down her food.

This happens every day. Nothing is more exciting to her than lunch.

Imagine if we had this same desire and passion for our food! I’m not talking about steak or ice cream either; I mean our spiritual food. The Bible describes itself as food several times.

When Jesus was tempted by Satan to turn stones into bread, Jesus quoted Scripture saying, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). God’s Word is spiritual food to spiritual creations.

If you want to grow spiritually, you must eat spiritual food. Jesus Christ Himself, the Word, is referred to as “bread from heaven” (John 6:32-41). The Lord’s Supper illustrates this point in a tangible way when we eat the bread. “Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:24).

Believers want more of Christ and more of His Word. There should be a consuming desire to hear more.

So, when you’re about to leave for church to hear the Word preached, do you tingle with anticipation like my dog before lunch? Are you staring at the door, “Is it time yet? Is it time yet?”

When it’s time to break into the Word, the bread from heaven, do we run in circles and jump around with anticipation?

Or is God’s Word boring and life-sucking to you?

Perhaps you don’t like being compared to my dog, which is understandable. So how about an illustration the Apostle Peter used instead: “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2).

Ever been around hungry babies? Their whole body convulses as they scream and cry for food. They don’t stop putting up a fuss until the food is delivered into their mouths. Before any bit of food is tasted, they are unhappy. But as soon as the food comes, everything is right with their little world.

This is how we ought to be for God’s Word. There should be an excitement, a whole body-consuming desire to hear more. You don’t have to wait for a set time either, you can pick it up and read it any time!

Develop some spiritual hunger pains and then feast deeply on the filling Word of God.

Prayer Requests:

• Pray for opportunity to share the love of Christ, even to the point of sacrificing for others, to feed others and develop an appetite for more spiritual food
• Pray for those who do not have access to God’s Word that a way would open up for them to get it
• Pray for fellowship with other believers where we can enjoy the bounty of God’s Word together and be edified