The transitions of military life often breed challenges of the soul.
- Just when you’re thriving and feeling settled, orders come down and it is time to move.
- Just when you have established yourself in a new command, the leadership changes.
- Just when life settles into a good routine, deployment interrupts the rhythm of family life.
Our “just when’s” can leave us hungry for satisfaction and stability in a transient world.
Whether you’re active duty or a family member, military life brings consistent change.
God’s word provides the stability of truth to fill our hearts in a transitory life.
Level Places of Faith
Coming down from the mountain after a night spent in prayer, Jesus stands on a level place. A large crowd gathers. Some seek healing; some seek truth. Others long for answers, while even more hold out hearts full of needs of all kinds. It doesn’t take a stretch of my imagination to find myself among the throng of needy people.
Whatever our need, Christ encourages us to find our answers in believing God is good. Jesus meets us in the level place of truth.
“Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied” (Luke 6:21).
Blessed to be hungry?
With this simple statement, Jesus recognizes that we hunger for answers, help, and strength. We have many kinds of hunger, don’t we?
Maybe you yearn for success or stability. Maybe your spirit famishes with the pangs of faith that stretches thin. Maybe your heart craves approval or peace…or some other need that gnaws at your insides.
In our hunger, the needs of our souls, we are somehow blessed. Blessed to be hungry: how can this be? It seems like craziness.
Yet in the economy of grace, when we are weak, we are strong. And when we are hungry, we are blessed with satisfaction that comes from the hand of God.
What are you hungry for?
Sometimes we hunger for insubstantial things that look so delightful. Success, approval, comfort, and convenience—these are a few of the desires that we reach for.
“The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63 NLT).
Spirit and life.
The true things that satisfy our souls are given by the Holy Spirit. The life that Christ gives is “the absolute fullness of life. Life real and genuine, active and vigorous, devoted to God…”
Our hunger urges us to work and try and strive and worry and fret in our efforts to fill our souls and satisfy our hearts. Human effort cannot, will not, sustain our souls.
Jesus speaks the words of spirit and life.
Christ has the words that satisfy a life, even in the changes of military life.
On another dusty day with a different hungry crowd, Jesus works a quiet miracle. Too much hunger with scarcely two fish and five small loaves of bread, the disciples attempt to send the crowd away to feed themselves. Do the people realize the wonder of what Christ provides?
Do we?
Food for the body and truth for the soul.
With a word, too little becomes plenty to meet the need. Twelve baskets are filled with more than enough given by the Bread of Life.
“For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world” (John 6:33).
Oh yes, Jesus blesses all of us that hunger.
Later, on a day that many followers turn away, Jesus asks the disciples, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” (John 6:67).
Peter answers with the conviction of one who has experienced true life that satisfies the soul.
“Lord, to whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).
What needs do transitions and uncertainties create in your life? Will you trust Christ to fill your soul today?
Today’s post is from the reflections of Ginger Harrington, social media coordinator for Planting Roots. You can find Ginger’s writing on her award-winning blog, Ginger’s Corner: Where the Practical Meets the Spiritual. She also writes for Guideposts Military Blog. Ginger and her retired Marine husband have enjoyed twenty-four years of military life and are parents to three young adults.
