CHRIST, THE BELIEVER’S SATISFACTION “He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.” Psalm 107:9
We find the believer sometimes set forth under the character of the hungry. What does he hunger for? Is it pleasure, honor, promotion, respectability? Oh no, these toys cannot satisfy the spiritual hunger of a living soul. Believers cannot hunger after that on which they cannot feed. They hunger after righteousness as the Lord said, “Blessed are ye that hunger and thirst after righteousness.” They hunger after God Himself in His blessed manifestations. They hunger after the bread of life, which came down from heaven that a man should eat thereof and not die. Christ in ‘the letter of the word’ cannot satisfy their keen appetite. They must feed upon Him internally or their famine continues. To these hungry, famishing souls to have Christ ‘in the letter’ is like a starving beggar standing outside a shop where there are plenty of provisions and not having a dime to buy them. What is Christ ‘in the letter’? Will a sight of Christ in the word of God remove the burden of guilt, bring peace into the soul, purge the conscience or subdue the power of sin? Will ‘the mere doctrine’ of Christ draw up the affections to Him, cast out the world, dethrone self, or purify the heart? No, no, my dear friend, ‘the cold doctrine’ of Christ in ‘the written word’ will never accomplish these things. But the presence of Christ in the soul can at once do all these things. Only Christ coming into his heart as the hope of glory can pacify the spiritually hungry soul. In the fourth chapter of John’s gospel we break into a scene and conversation between Jesus and a woman of Samaria, “There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, give me to drink. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto Him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto Him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” Is there a thirst and hunger in your soul for Christ? If so the promise is to you, hear His compassion, “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring”: He invites the thirsty soul saying, “Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” ~~Terry Worthan, 1938-2022
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