“I feel like I am not being fed spiritually” is a stinging barb often employed by disgruntled church members towards their pastor and church.

Granted, there are many pastors who are not faithful preachers of God’s Word and many churches where Bible preaching and teaching have taken a back pew to music and entertainment.  If entertaining the masses has become the focus of your pastor and church, it is time to find a new church!

However, many who read this blog are members of churches where God’s Word is faithfully preached leaving me to ask:  Who bears the failure (or guilt) for a spiritually emaciated Christian?  The church?  The pastor? Or the individual believer?  That question is answered in Psalm 34:9-10.

Psalm 34:9-10 – O fear [be afraid; reverence; stand in awe] the LORD, ye his saints [holy ones; set apart; pure]: for there is no want [lack; need] to them that fear [afraid; revere] him. ¹⁰ The young lions do lack [needy; destitute; poverty], and suffer hunger [famine; famish; i.e. a voracious hunger]: but they that seek [enquire; search; ask] the LORD shall not want [lack; fail; have need] any good [better; pleasant; favorable] thing.

Two spiritual qualities are true of saints who experience “no want” and  “shall not want any good thing”:  They “fear” and “seek the LORD” (34:9-10).  In other words, when a believer professes, “I feel like I am not being fed”, they are in essence confessing their failure to “fear” and “seek the LORD” (34:9-10).

David offers a potent illustration of a spiritually emaciated saint when he draws a parallel with “young lions” that “lack, and suffer hunger” (34:10a).  Why would young lions go hungry?  Two reasons come to mind:  Immaturity and Inexperience.  The inexperience of young lions in the hunt often leaves them weak, hungry, and dependent on the spoils left from the kills of mature and experienced lions.

The same is true of spiritually immature Christians who wait for their pastor to bottle and spoon-feed spiritual truths on Sunday mornings.  Like the pitiful roar of hungry young lions, whining saints too lazy to study God’s Word and feed themselves often complain they are hungry!

“…They that seek [enquire; search; ask] the LORD shall not want [lack; fail; have need] any good [better; pleasant; favorable] thing.” (Psalm 34:10b)

Copyright 2016 – Travis D. Smith