Filling Your Spiritual Hunger With the Fullness of God

Life with a toddler is always interesting. It’s the age where children are learning to express their thoughts and emotions, but don’t always understand how to reason through them. It’s the age where the wrong sippy cup can lead to a meltdown and every simple yes or no decision can take half an hour.

Last week my two-year-old told me she was starving, so I laid out a spread of her favorite foods: turkey, apples, cheese, sweet potatoes, peas, and blueberries. Naturally, the “starving” toddler took three blueberries and one piece of cheese and decided that was all she wanted. Not ten minutes later, she looked up and said, “Mommy, I’m still hungry.” I spent a full minute looking back and forth between her face and all of the food still laid out on the table and (barely) resisted the urge to say, “Are you kidding me?”

That night, my husband and I talked about how difficult mealtimes seemed to be and I kept saying, “All of the food was right there in front of her!” And just like that, God showed me how often I act like a spiritual toddler.

I know that Christ died for my sins so that I could have right-standing with the Father, but He also gave me so much more. God promised not just life, but life abundantly (John 10:10). I’m meant to be completely filled to the brim, but instead, I take a small bite here and there and then complain that I’m still hungry.

Ephesians 3:18-19 promises that when we know the love of Christ, we are “filled with all the fullness of God”. That means that as long as I know and focus on how much God loves me, I am full of Him and everything He has for me like health, peace, and favor. Yet so often I forget to abide in His love (John 15:9) and then wonder why it feels like something is missing. In the same way that my daughter looks at me over a table full of food and tells me she is still hungry, I look at God over the abundance of His blessings and ask Him for more.

If you’re in a similar situation, remember that the food is right there in front of you. All you have to do is know and meditate on the truth of God’s steadfast love.