A Hankering For Something Different
Growing up in rural east Texs, you pick up alot of terms and words that I don’t hear much anymore. It may just be the times or I suspect it is more around my “raisen” in a simple country setting. One of the words I like, (and strill try to use now and again) is the word “hankering”. In simple country terms, it means wanting something really bad or just plain hungry for it. Often when you got a hankering for something you would do it or get it, no matter the cost. One thing about a hankering is that it implies a former knowledge of what you are desiring, i.e. so bad you can taste it.
Why the vocabulary lesson? I think that as believers we sometimes find ourselves with a hankering. Now one would hope that the hankering would be for more intimacy with Christ, a deeper prayer life, or even holiness in our lives, yet unfortunately it is often the opposite. All of us at one point in time in our lives were lost, adrift from the things of God and Christ. In that life we may have experienced a greater or lesser degree of the things of this world.
We acquired tastes that often feed our desires, emptyness and lonliness. When coming to Christ, we looked for a filling of all those things from a divine perspective. And He does meet us in incredible marvelous ways. However, I think that we sometimes get a hankering for the old ways the old flavors and sometimes will stop at nothing to get them.
When I find myself with a hankering for the old stuff, I am drawn back to a few Scriptures that help direct me and remind me of who I am, and where my commitment is.
“No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).
“If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him” (Hebrews 10:38).
“Remember Lot’s wife. Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it” (Luke 17:32-33).
“A double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8).
“Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able” (Luke 13:24).
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).
Jesus in John 6:27-35 said, “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.” Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will you perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will you do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.” And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.”
To close the thoughts for today, I want to share a passage from one of the hymns we used to sing:
Come, every soul by sin oppressed, There’s mercy with the Lord,
And He will surely give you rest By trusting in His Word.
Only trust Him, only trust Him, Only trust Him now.
He will save you, He will save you, He will save you now.
For Jesus shed His precious Blood, Rich blessings to bestow;
Plunge now into the crimson flood That washes white as snow.
Only trust Him, only trust Him, Only trust Him now.
He will save you, He will save you, He will save you now.
(“Only Trust Him” by John H. Stockton, 1813-1877).
