HUNGRY EYES

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
II Timothy 3:16-17

Following my divorce in 2008, I found myself once again entering the world of dating. I would like to say that the first person I dated in this five year time frame was the one I am married to now, but that would be a lie. The truth is I dated about a handful of ladies, and crushed on about twice as many. A few of them stick out, though. There was the one date where we walked around a shopping center talking about religion for three hours. When that date was done I walked away convinced that I was on the right track with God, and her, well not so much. There was also the one who I met at Starbucks, took ten minutes to decide what she wanted to drink, only to come up with water, and then wrote me a nasty email about how I needed to commit right away to a relationship. Sorry, but she scared me.
One other bad date sticks out, the one in which I laugh every time I think back on it. At the time I was keeping a devotional blog and she stumbled upon it. Seeing I lived close by her, she reached out to me. We emailed back and forth a few times before I decided I would meet a fan of my writings. I pulled up to our meeting spot, an ice cream shop, and found her waiting for me there. We ate our ice cream, shared stories, and walked around the strip mall for an hour or two. The date itself was pleasant, but there was one glitch. The whole time I felt just like the M&M and pretzel being stared at by the creepy hungry eyes guy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-OnEe-dauE). Personally the feeling of being craved by her spooked me. However, the desire to crave God’s word, and have hungry eyes for the Bible, excites me. And rightfully so. If we had any idea just how much God’s word can transform us, can restore us, and can recreate us, we may all walk around with hungry eyes.
In II Timothy 3:16-17 we read that God’s word can be useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training, therefore allowing us to be fully equipped for every good work. With it we are equipped; without it we are empty handed. Yet let us look at little more in depth at these key words. The God-breathed Word is ‘useful’. This word useful is the Greek word OPHELIMOS, meaning to be helpful, serviceable, or beneficial. If there is anything out there that is going to help me in life, I want it! God’s Word is helpful for ‘teaching’. In the Greek this is the word DIDASKALIA, meaning instruction or education. God’s Word is helpful for ‘rebuking’, which is the Greek word ELEGCHOS. The definition of this word is cross-examining, testing, or proving. God’s Word is helpful for ‘correcting’. The Greek word used here is EPANORTHOSIS, which is defined as straightening up again, or being rectified. Lastly we read that God’s Word is helpful for ‘training’, the Greek word PAIDEIA, meaning a rearing, like the rearing of a child, or the taking of disciplinary actions.
God’s Word, the standard of our lives and what we should be craving, is helpful for instructing us, cross-examining us, straightening us up again, and rearing us. These items sound harsh, but are they not the same steps that we as parents put in place when we give our words to our children. We want our words to serve as our parenting standard because we love our children. When they are obeyed they prove safety. When they neglected, our words become the tool once more that sets the course for the child to follow. Words, both God’s Words to us and our words to our children, are there to ‘equip’, to EXARTIDZO, to complete the one learning, so that he may enter into all that is good. If we have hungry eyes for God’s Word, and daily have God’s Word in us, then we are being transformed into His likeness, and being prepared for the tests that will come at us.
So where are your eyes, and what are they hungry for? Are they craving God’s Word? Or are they craving the world? Oh that I pray we will have a hunger for God that surpasses any temptation, any cheap thrill, any ‘monumental’ side show, and crave Him like never before.