Be Hungry

Steven Furtick post:  Greedy for God

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith…Do your best to come to me quickly…When you come, bring the cloak I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments.
2 Timothy 4:6-7, 9, 13

Paul is about to die, and he knows it.

And yet other than a cloak to stay warm, all he wants are his “scrolls,” which most scholars believe are the fragments of the Old Testament that he owned.

This doesn’t make much sense. He’s already written 2/3 of the New Testament and hammered out his theology. He’s not going to preach another sermon. Lead another Bible study. Write another letter. He knows the Scriptures backwards and forwards – enough to at least sustain a couple more quiet times until he’s executed.

Why does Paul want to read the Bible when He’s about to die and meet its Author face to face?

Because Paul is greedy.

Greedy for God.

We should expect nothing less. After all, this is the same Paul who said he wanted “to know Christ and the power of his resurrection” (Philippians 3:10). Paul wanted every bit of God that he could get until his last dying breath. Every insight about Him he could glean from His word. Every ounce of His presence and power. And nothing less would satisfy him, even in his last moments.

I think that should be a challenge to all of us. It’s good to be greedy for God. It’s good to get all you can of Him.

Greed often gets a bad rap, and usually rightfully so. But I’m coming to find that greed isn’t bad in and of itself. Greed is just an insatiable appetite. In its bad form, it has become fixed on something that 1) is limited in its ability to give and 2) isn’t the true source of everything our souls desire.

Well, God is the source of everything. And the only lid on God’s ability to give of Himself is our capacity to receive. So it’s good to be greedy for Him.

God is never going to run out of love. He’s never going to run out of joy. He’s never going to run out of grace and our mercy. He’s never going to run out of anything.

So why should we be content with settling for scraps from His table?