CRAVE

During each of my 3 pregnancies, I craved certain foods. While pregnant with my first child, I craved cottage cheese of all things! We kept cottage cheese stocked in the fridge. With each pregnancy, my husband learned what the cravings were and would be willing & able to run out to get the desired food to satisfy my craving. Unfortunately the cravings did not disappear after giving birth to our babies. They've just changed (& I no longer have any real excuse). For example, after I eat a salad, I just have to have a little chocolate~I crave it! When I walk into a movie theater I crave popcorn!

To crave means "to long for; want greatly; desire eagerly; to have an intense desire for"...

This "craving" principle is spiritual as well as physical. I crave what I feed myself. Physically, after a yummy salad, my body craves chocolate. If I stopped giving in to that craving, eventually it would stop. I would starve my craving. That's a physical reality. If I fill my time with watching TV, I will crave TV. If I work out 2 hours a day, my body will crave working out. The principle again~I crave what I feed on.

I have become a woman who craves the Living Word. That craving did not just happen, I really trained myself to "hunger and thirst after righteousness". I had read the scripture "Taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8) and the Lord began to place that desire within me. Over the years, I have noticed gradually that I cannot live without tasting the Word daily. It is a craving. I must have it. My Bible goes with me everywhere~it is packed first when I am leaving on a trip. I keep notecards in my car & kitchen that have scriptures written on them. I am meditating on God's Word throughout the whole day...why? Because I crave it!

Galations 5:16 -17a says this, "So I say, live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires/cravings of the sinful nature (flesh). For the sinful nature (flesh) desires/craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature (flesh)."

When I feed the flesh, the flesh will win and when I feed my spirit (with the things of the Spirit), the Spirit will win. As believers, we need to recognize what we are feeding....the flesh or the spirit. A good way to find out what you are feeding is to ask this question:

What do you crave? Is what you are craving feeding your spirit man (to strenthen you & transform you into the image of Christ) or is what you crave feeding your flesh (your selfish desires~getting what you want, when you want it). This is a conflict all our lives until we meet Jesus face to face. Even Paul writes at the end of verse 17 "They (meaning spirit & flesh) are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want." So, I am in good company. Paul , the great apostle, wrote of the struggle!

I am working on some "starving" in my life right now. Starving myself from cravings that were feeding the flesh, not the spirit. So, as my body cries out to satisfy these cravings, I remind myself that "I live by the Spirit and do not satisfy the desires of the flesh". My heart's desire is to "long for; want greatly; desire eagerly; to have an intense desire for"....JESUS! How I want to CRAVE HIM!