As women, I don’t think it is an understatement when I say we all have cravings. During all of my pregnancies I have craved one thing: soft tacos from Taco Bell. Nasty greasy meat topped with flat pathetic looking lettuce. When I am not pregnant I do not eat meat often, if at all, but during pregnancy I always crave meat. Why do we have cravings? I was once told that we crave something because that is our body’s way of saying “I need more _____ to work right! Gimme some!” I don’t know if it is medically proven or not, but I think we have cravings because we need what it is we are craving. Sometimes if we can’t figure out what it is we are craving, we will eat something, realize that’s not what it was, so we try something else. When we crave something, nothing besides that particular thing will satisfy us. We need to be craving the Word of God. Nothing should satisfy us like the Word of God. In the religious world there are people who “church jump.” They go from one denomination to another, constantly switching churches. They do this because they are looking for something that they are not getting at that particular place.

We have expectations of kids. I would never expect my nine month old to do the same things or act that same way as my two-year old. The expectations we have are different. The same goes with our spiritual expectations. 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 says, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly…” We should expect those babes in Christ to long for milk, to crave it. Those who are no longer babes in Christ should hunger and thirst for more than just milk. Why do we think it is okay for someone who has been a Christian a long time, to still be studying “milk”? I would certainly not give my two-year old child nothing but milk. She needs more than milk. Likewise, Christians need more than “milk” when it comes to spiritual growth. Philippians 1:9-11 says, “And I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

This passage tells us that we will be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes from Jesus Christ. Hungering and thirsting for righteousness means that we will hunger and thirst for Jesus Christ. He will fill us. Because Jesus knows how those who desire to be like Him would hunger and thirst for Him, He tells us where we can find our spiritual food. “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst’” (John 6:35).

Do you crave the Word of God? We all, as Christians, should. No one can fill us like Jesus can. Nothing will satisfy our hunger and thirst like the Word of God. While physical cravings can be pushed aside, spiritual cravings cannot. We must fill them and we must fill them with the Word. Whether you are a babe in Christ or “aged” in Christ, crave God’s Word and let Him satisfy your cravings.

By Carley Robertson
Carley and her husband, Travis, serve with the Columbine church of Christ in Littleton, CO. Travis is a minister there focusing on young adults & families. Carley is a stay-at-home mom to their two daughters (Paityn Elyse, two years old; Brooklyn Kate, nine months old). Before serving with the Columbine church, they served in Hope, AR.