A banquet was placed before a hungry man. It had everything you could of thought of, a feast fit for a king. “Eat as much as you want” said the host, “this feast is for you, eat till you are full and satisfied”. It sounded almost too good to be true. So the man was left to feast on the banquet. He took his seat at the table, tucked in his napkin and gazed at all the tasty goodies before him. First he took a miniature sausage and ate it whole. Bizarrely he then put his napkin down and stepped away from the table. For the next two hours he then wandered around the room looking at the pictures on the walls. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a chicken nugget. He rushed over and scoffed it down, then however, he returned to walking round the room and looking out the windows. This behaviour continued for the next few hours, only every now and again would he go and take a small piece of food.
After about 10 hours the host returned. “Are you full?” he asked. “No said the man, I am still very hungry, your food has not filled me up at all!” the man replied. “I don’t understand” said the host quite bemused, “You have all this food which it appears you have hardly touched, and yet you say you are still hungry”. The man was now getting quite defensive, “I have eaten at least 5 pieces of food, a small sausage, a nugget, and a few Pringles, and even one of those star fruit things, and yet I am still hungry”. The host now understood, “I think you have misunderstood” he replied, “If you want to satisfy your hunger you can’t just pick at the food every now and then. If you want to be full you need to eat properly and often!”

I thought of this analogy this morning. It struck me that we can come to God looking to be satisfied and fulfilled. But like the man we pick at little bits, then wonder why we just don’t feel any different. If we want to be filled we need to eat; if we want to quench our thirst we must drink. It sounds so simple but I wonder how much we are picking and then remaining hunger. Jesus said, “seek and you will find”. We need to keep on pursuing God, keep on feeding on Him and His word. Our life with God is not a one-off event but a daily relationship.