In a previous article, I wrote about four severely malnourished siblings that I have been daily feeding. The children—Joshua, Mirika, Ashaba, Katseme— look drastically different now that they’ve been receiving nutritious food on a regular basis. Their stomachs are no longer bloated and their skin is no longer covered with sores. And their hair is no longer falling out in patches.

Often, I think back to the unusual way I first met the children. The oldest, Joshua, was caught stealing food in my house. When I asked him why he chose to steal rather than ask me for food, he replied, “Because I am hunger.”

Lamentations 4:9 claims, “Those killed by the sword are better off than those who die of hunger.” If being stabbed is a more pleasant way to pass on than starving to death, it’s no wonder hunger drove Joshua to steal.

Intense hunger depletes a person’s strength (Job 18:12). It causes children to faint (Job 17:5; Lamentations 2:19), and causes the lowly of society to scrounge for food in desolate places (Job 30:3).

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), “The new estimate of the number of people who [suffered] chronic hunger [in 2011] is 925 million.” Our God is a God who surely desires that these hunger statistics improve. Just as He “satisfied [the Israelites’] hunger” by providing meat and manna in the wilderness (Psalm 105:40), God longs to open His hand and “satisfy the hunger and thirst of every living thing” today (Psalm 145:16).

Let’s join Him by praying earnestly for the millions of starving people around the world, and by seeking tangible ways to help “satisfy the hunger” of His “treasured ones” (Psalm 17:14).

NLT 365-day reading plan passage for today: Genesis 32:1-33:16