Blessing or Gift

Man is not just physical but spiritual. If you could sign up on the web and receive birthday gifts on your birthday you would probably do it. Good gifts, gifts you like, sure who wouldn't sign up: but what if you could sign up and receive the same gifts from your friends. We would all choose to receive the gifts from our friends. Gifts that came from the heart, gifts brought to us in love, gifts where they chose to place us over themselves for a time, gifts that would hold long term meaning for us.

We are physical creatures but we are not just physical creatures. Man needs way more than shelter, food, sleep, and sex. If your home burned down would you rather have a place to stay or a warm welcome and a place to stay? Would you rather have food to eat, or a meal extra carefully prepared by a friend? Would you choose to get some sleep because you had to, or would you rather sleep because everything was settled in your day? Jesus told us man shall not live by bread alone, but rather on every Word of God. (Matthew 4:4) We must look for the spiritual in the physical and can only find that through the lens of the Scripture.

How blind are we to walk about in this physical universe with all things spiritual invisible to our eyes. In our natural states we tend to seek very base desires; and at times we may seek to fulfill some deeper desires but they are not naturally good. Only by the light of the scriptures do we get to measure why we are doing the things we do. By the scriptures we can begin to analyze our longings and ask the question why do I pursue this activity?

When Jesus faced off with Satan He knew that He wanted much more than just to eat some bread; what Jesus was deeply longing for was for God to take care of Him. For God to provide the bread, for God to provide spiritual assistance, for God to answer prayers. The spiritual blessing came, the angels were sent from God to minister to Jesus. According to the scriptures Jesus was very hungry, but He was fulfilled first spiritually and the food came later. Have you stopped to consider what your spiritual hunger is as you thirst for physical things?