Donna Simpson weighs 600 pounds, but she’s working on gaining another 400. Intending to become the heaviest woman alive, Donna commenced a public campaign to market her intentions. She intends to eat healthy, but she plans to eat a lot. In her words, she eats “massive quantities of healthy food,” including more than 70 pieces of sushi and 20 chicken wraps in single meals. While Donna’s appetite captures headlines, other personal details appear to also be at play. Journalist Karine Ioffee writes that Simpson admits “she is as hungry for attention as for calorie-rich food.”
Whatever Simpson’s motivations and whatever one thinks of her choices, we all crave love and attention—and we work our own angles in attempting to secure them. The psalmist reiterated over and over again how vast and limitless God’s love was for His people. Repeatedly, the Psalms reminded Israel of God’s kindness, mercy, and protection. They retold the story of how God had “rescued [Israel] from the land of Egypt” and how, if Israel would simply obey God and receive His love, God would “fill [them] with good things” (Psalm 81:10).
“But no,” says the psalmist, “[God’s] people wouldn’t listen. Israel did not want [Him] around” (Psalm 81:11). Isn’t it interesting that we spurn the very One who loves us most deeply? Often, we keep at arm’s length the only One who has the capacity to fill our deepest longings and cravings.
The psalm speaks of God’s intent to feed and satisfy us (Psalm 81:16). He desires to love us in the places where we’re most deprived of love, and He wants to satisfy our deepest longings—our longings for Him. But God will not force Himself upon us. We have to open ourselves to Him. We have to walk into the wide arms of His love.
NLT 365-day reading plan passage for today: 1 Kings 10:1-13
More:
Psalm 81 speaks of Israel’s “stubborn desires” (v.12) that seem to be at odds with the people’s longings God wants to fill (v.10). Look through the psalm and see what these competing desires might be.
Next:
What longing do you most want God to meet? What would keep you from simply receiving God’s care and provision for you?
agentleanswer on April 16, 2011 at 1:00 am
Thanks Winn. I guess we all need to remember that when we delight ourselves IN HIM He will give us the desire of our hearts. Most of our hearts long for HIM! We just seem to try doing things our own way…I wish we would learn this one PERMANENTLY and stop filling up on the wrong stuff …no matter how “Healthy” it seems at the time.
Church Activity
Healthy Food in Wrong Quantity
Relationships that “Feel” good
Work
Etc.
Thanks again.
tom felten on April 16, 2011 at 9:25 am
Great thoughts, Kathy! We need to seek God and allow Him to provide the balance and perspective we need for all other things. This verse makes it plain: “You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13 NIV).
winn collier on April 16, 2011 at 9:30 am
I could add my own to the list, you’re so right.
followingHim on April 16, 2011 at 11:38 am
God is a Spirit (John 4.24) and is transcendent. Those various idols, ancient and modern, are corporeal and carnal. Why do we allow ourselves, so naturally –automatically, even! — to be attracted to and enmeshed by them?
I think we need to look at our sinful nature. Even born again and indwelled by the Holy Spirit, we are still afflicted with that genetic-like flaw, sin. We need to counter that regularly with Scripture, prayer, conscious meditation, wholesome reading, and Christian fellowship.
Like a vibrant marriage, our relationship with God must be “worked on,” and not neglected or taken for granted.
winn collier on April 16, 2011 at 12:30 pm
it’s a tricky thing, isn’t it? God is transcendent as Spirit and yet immediate and physical in the person of Jesus Christ. Our physicalness matters, but it must be under God’s reign. Thankfully, God is constantly working his good pleasure within us.