I don’t know about you but the minute I decide to go on a diet for my health and wellbeing, my mind immediately tells me to eat all things NOT healthy and not on the diet.  I notice and I am drawn to all the fast food commercials who tempt me, causing the cravings to grow stronger.  I can almost taste the fries and hear the sugary beverage poured into a clear glass so I can see it even better!  What a disappointment to receive nothing close to what is represented on the commercial at the establishment, but I eat it anyway!  I want all that I do not need.  I want that burger and fries along with that tall glass of soda pop!  But will that satisfy my hunger and thirst?

I’ve been a yo-yo dieter all my life. This is what I have learned. The more I cave into the cravings of unhealthy foods, the more and more my body demands them.  The more I think about the unhealthy foods, the more I crave them and the more I eat them.  It is an unending cycle that eventually causes bad habits, grumpy attitudes, and a sluggish life style.  We can blame no one but ourselves.  I hunger and thirst for everything that satisfies for a moment but hurts me eventually.  How about you?  I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who struggles with this human lack of control.

It is apparent that God’s people have decided to go on a starvation diet…a diet that excludes God from their lives.  Yikes!  Read on…

Amos 4, The Message

You Never Got Hungry for God

“Listen to this, you cows of Bashan
    grazing on the slopes of Samaria.
You women! Mean to the poor,
    cruel to the down-and-out!
Indolent and pampered, you demand of your husbands,
    ‘Bring us a tall, cool drink!’

^2-3 “This is serious—I, God, have sworn by my holiness!
    Be well warned: Judgment Day is coming!
They’re going to rope you up and haul you off,
    keep the stragglers in line with cattle prods.
They’ll drag you through the ruined city walls,
    forcing you out single file,
And kick you to kingdom come.”
    God’s Decree.

^4-5 “Come along to Bethel and sin!
    And then to Gilgal and sin some more!
Bring your sacrifices for morning worship.
    Every third day bring your tithe.
Burn pure sacrifices—thank offerings.
    Speak up—announce freewill offerings!
That’s the sort of religious show
    you Israelites just love.”
        God’s Decree.

⁶ “You know, don’t you, that I’m the One
    who emptied your pantries and cleaned out your cupboards,
Who left you hungry and standing in bread lines?
    But you never got hungry for me. You continued to ignore me.”
        God’s Decree.

^7-8 “Yes, and I’m the One who stopped the rains
    three months short of harvest.
I’d make it rain on one village
    but not on another.
I’d make it rain on one field
    but not on another—and that one would dry up.
People would stagger from village to village
    crazed for water and never quenching their thirst.
But you never got thirsty for me.
    You ignored me.”
        God’s Decree.

⁹ “I hit your crops with disease
    and withered your orchards and gardens.
Locusts devoured your olive and fig trees,
    but you continued to ignore me.”
        God’s Decree.

¹⁰ “I revisited you with the old Egyptian plagues,
    killed your choice young men and prize horses.
The stink of rot in your camps was so strong
    that you held your noses—
But you didn’t notice me.
    You continued to ignore me.”
        God’s Decree.

¹¹ “I hit you with earthquake and fire,
    left you devastated like Sodom and Gomorrah.
You were like a burning stick
    snatched from the flames.
But you never looked my way.
    You continued to ignore me.”
        God’s Decree.

¹² “All this I have done to you, Israel,
    and this is why I have done it.
Time’s up, O Israel!
    Prepare to meet your God!”

¹³ Look who’s here: Mountain-Shaper! Wind-Maker!
    He laid out the whole plot before Adam.
He brings everything out of nothing,
    like dawn out of darkness.
He strides across the alpine ridges.
    His name is God, God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND

We learn from Amos that to go on a diet that excludes God from every part of our lives leads to trouble, lack of protection, and bad attitudes.  Selfishness leads the way that causes us to want more and more of all that we do not need but we grab it anyway no matter who it hurts.  If we stay on this diet without God in our lives, we eventually will not hunger or thirst for Him at all.  Self becomes our manager and guide.  Evil comes in to take over what we think we are controlling and leads us to all kinds perverted activities.  This “diet” will lead to death eventually. 

I’m reminded of what Paul says is healthier for us in Ephesians 4…Read this entire letter of what God told Paul to write to us—it is a great “diet” for our spiritual health!  Here is a snapshot;

“Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”  Ephesians 4:15-16, NLT

And who is the Truth?  Jesus.  Jesus changes everything.  Jesus is the One and Only who will quench our hunger and thirst forever, making us healthy and whole.

Jesus describes Himself…

• I am the Bread of Life (John 6:35)
• I am the Light of the World (John 8:12)
• I am the Door (John 10:9)
• I am the Good Shepherd (John 10:11,14)
• I am the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25)
• I am the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6)
• I am the Vine (John 15:1,5)

AND to those who believe in Jesus, we will never thirst again…

“On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’  John 7:37-38

Hunger and thirst for God and we will always be filled—forever!  Best “diet” ever!

Lord,

When I hunger and thirst for you, you provide.  My cravings for you grow stronger as I seek you and are filled in ways that I never knew to be possible.  You are amazing.  You fill us and provide all that we need in loving ways.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

In Jesus Name, Amen