Daily Reading for Friday, Jan. 25: Passion

“The Lord does not let the righteous go hungry,
but he thwarts the craving of the wicked.” Proverbs 10: 3

Just as our bodies hunger for food, so too our souls hunger for passion. God created us with a need to be filled—not only naturally by food, but supernaturally by his word and by his presence. That hunger is really the personification of passion. We crave something, we have an appetite for something, and we cannot be satisfied until we have eaten our fill. God promises us that he will not let the righteous, those who have placed their faith in Christ, go hungry. He will not place a passion in us for him that cannot be satisfied. He will provide of himself to us in answer to our appetite for him. In fact, he rewards our craving with an abundance of his presence. Matthew 7:7-11 tell us, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask him!” What a blessing to know that our Heavenly Father does not ignore when we need him. He does not turn a deaf ear to us when we call out to him—and it is our passion that propels us to call to him, to acknowledge our need to be filled by him.