My kids can be bottomless pits at times. No sooner than we have finished dinner and cleaned up the kitchen when one will wander in asking for a snack because they’re “hungry.”
Then there are times we sit down to dinner and they don’t want to eat—either because they filled up on snacks before dinner, or because they don’t like what I’ve prepared.
As a mom, it doesn’t really bother me if my children are still hungry after eating dinner, so long as they ate dinner. They’re growing and their hunger is just a sign of life.
Last week I wrote about having a place at God’s table. This week I want to ask: do we come that table hungry or full? Do we gladly eat whatever He has set before us?
The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. Proverbs 27:7
How could anyone loathe honey? To loathe is not just a preference, it is an intense dislike or disgust. Honey is naturally sweet. I know all my healthy friends will substitute honey for sugar in recipes, and that’s nice. It’s also nice to drizzle that honey on a warm, buttery biscuit... But I digress.
Honey is something you would expect anyone to like. But the Bible says it is possible to be so full that even something as sweet as honey can be disgusting.
So what changed?
It wasn’t the honey. It was something inside of us. The fullness.
Even when we have eaten a filling dinner, my husband will almost always have room for a little dessert. So I have to ask myself as I read Proverbs 27:7—when I come to the Lord, am I full or hungry?
When Elimelech and Naomi left Bethlehem Judah, they appeared to be hungry--literally. There was a famine and they went to sojourn in Moab. But in verse 21 of Chapter 1, Naomi says “I went out full..” (Ruth 1:21)
It is possible to be full in a way that has nothing to do with food. To have a heart full of my own thoughts, my own expectations, my own pride. It is possible to be full of self. We use that phrase— “He’s full of himself.” We can be like the church in Laodicea and feel like we “have need of nothing.” (Revelation 3:17)
We can be sitting at the Lord’s table and not be enjoying all the blessings He has richly provided for us because we are full. So full that not even dessert sounds good. So full that we think we do not need the Lord’s provisions.
For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul will goodness. —Psalm 107:9
Are we longing to be filled by the Lord or have we quietly come to a place where we are full and need nothing?
At times that may be true, but what if we don’t want what is on the table, not because we are full, but because we are afraid?
I am the Lord thy God...open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. —Psalm 81:10
When I read this, I think of when my children were just learning to eat solid food. “Open wide,” we would say. And like little baby birds, they would open their mouths and eat almost anything I put in front of them...until they had something sweet. Once they had a bite of pears or banana or apple, it was hard to get them to take another bite of strained peas.
I don’t blame them—they didn’t understand why, they just knew what tasted better.
Sometimes I wonder if we approach God’s table with a similar hesitation.
There was a time in my life when I came to God very hopeful, wanting to receive whatever He had for me. In 2011, I prayed for the blessing of twins and to my delight, God answered that prayer. I spent weeks full of hope and joy knowing that the Lord had heard me.
I was eating honey.
The risks were clear, but I was hopeful.Then, the complications began—but I was still so hopeful.And then, Rebekah and Rachel were gone.
And my hope was replaced with sorrow and confusion. I had tasted bitterness.
That kind of loss doesn’t just hurt in the moment. It changes the fabric of your heart. It changes how you view God. Just like tasting bitter vegetables made my children skeptical of what was coming on the next spoon, I became skeptical of what the Lord was going to serve me next.
So later, when I was blessed with twins again in 2019, my heart had real joy and hope, but it wasn’t the same kind of easy, unbounded happiness. There was a part of me that held back for fear that my sweet joy would turn to bitterness again.
And then I return to Proverbs 27:7:...to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.
God promises to fill me—with joy and peace, with knowledge and comfort, with the Holy Spirit and the fullness of God. But first, I have to open my mouth—wide.
Job said, “What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10)
He promises to fill me—but I don’t get to decide what’s on the spoon.
Sometimes it is sweet.Sometimes it is bitter.
But if I believe that God loves me—if I trust that He cares for me and does good things—then I stay at His table, I keep asking to be filled, I keep receiving. Even when I do not like the taste. Even when I do not fully understand what He is doing.
Because I can cling to Romans 8:28—And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
To the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.
Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes.—Psalm 119:68
Like the song says about God— He is “always, only good.”
I think of my children, how easily they will come back to the kitchen asking for more. They don’t fear whether there will be enough, or worry whether I will give them something harmful. They come back to the table, trusting that they will be fed. They eat their veggies, however reluctantly, trusting that I have their good health in mind.
I think that’s what the Lord asks of us.
Not to strive to understand everything.Not to control what is given.Not to come only when we are sure we will like what’s on the plate.
But to come “open wide”.
To come hungry, not full of our selves and our own ambitions. To stay at His table and trust His hand, filling us, even when we don’t like or understand what He is placing before us.
The fear of the Lord tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied... —Proverbs 19:23
