Crave

By Maurice Grier

Crave: to demand as right; to ask for earnestly; to long for eagerly; to desire strongly; to be in great need of--SYN. DESIRE, REQUIRE, COVET, WANT, SEE NEED

The original Old Testament Hebrew word for Crave is hw) . THAT word, when transliterated, becomes 'avah. (added by Mac)

The original Greek word from which crave is translated, is aiteo, or eirni, or epithumetes. The verb craves is translated from epizeteo, and the original Greek word for craved is epithumeo. (added by Mac)

Some things I crave are:

Spiritual wisdom

Closer relationships with God, my wife, my children, my father, my friends

A Christian household

Fruit

Financial security

I’m sure I could name a few more, but these are on the top of my list. Most of my discussion will be on the first two with more to come later as I expand this study in the future. So enjoy.

1 Peter 2:2-3 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

The unrestrained hunger of a healthy baby provides an example of the kind of eager desire for spiritual food that ought to mark the believer. Spiritual milk. Probably referring to God's word (1:23,25). The author is speaking figuratively. Milk is not to be understood here as in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 or Hebrews 5:12-14--in unfavorable contrast to solid food--but as an appropriate nourishment for babies.

The apostle Paul warned the believers in Corinth about being worldly, mere infants in Christ. In 1 Corinthians 3:2-3 he said, “I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. Hebrews 5:12-14 says, In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teachings about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Do you have an unrestrained hunger for God’s word? Do you have the same zeal you had when you were a young Christian? Are you training yourself to use your BIBLE constantly?

The apostle Peter tell us to not take God’s grace for granted and encourages us instead to be holy by setting ourselves apart from sin and impurity. 1 Peter 1:16 “Be holy, because I am holy.” Were we not redeemed through Christ’s blood for the forgiveness of sins? Vv. 1:23 says that we have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. Jesus, when tempted by the devil in Matthew 4:3 to turn stone into bread replied by quoting Moses from Duet. 8:3 …’man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’

I’ve often spoken to people who really believe the idea of “once saved, always saved”. That’s like having a license to go on sinning without worrying about repenting or asking for forgiveness. If we are to set ourselves apart from sin and impurity then how can we go on sinning knowing God’s opinion of it. God’s eyes are too pure to look at evil with favor. Even when his one and only son Jesus took on our sins God had to turn away from him. Ref. Matthew 27:46 …Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” If this doesn’t give us a clear understanding of how God feels about sin then we are fooling ourselves.

The Hebrews were being warned against falling away due to laziness. They were mature Christians who were becoming spiritually sluggish and were beginning to slip back to where they had started as new Christians. Some of us are following their example. As mature Christians we should be at a point in our spiritual and physical lives where we should be able to discern the difference between good and evil-which is something neither physical nor spiritual infants can do.

Read Hebrews 6:1-6 to see what the writer has to say about falling away.

Learn the elementary truths of God by spending some time learning the First Principle Studies if you don’t already know them. You can’t teach what you haven’t learned and practiced yet.

The Problem with Laziness

Becoming a sluggard requires little effort. Proverbs laughs at the sluggard a little, but uses him to teach some serious lessons. You can be like him very easily, for it doesn't require much: Proverbs 6:10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. Putting things off, making excuses, sleeping in: who doesn't sometimes fall victim to these tendencies?

The result of such a life is poverty, frustration, and broken relationships. The sluggard still wants the luxuries hard work earns, but he never gets them.

Proverbs 13:4 The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.

Proverbs 21:25-26 The sluggard’s cravings will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to work. All day long he craves for more, but the righteous give without sparing.

Does this describe your approach to your quiet times or prayer life? Do you crave a relationship with God but your lack of a prayer life and time spent reading your bible equal that of those people in Hebrews 5:12-6:6. Sluggards make excuses for not having a quiet time. Sluggards make excuses for not getting up early enough to get to church on time or at all. As disciples we must remember the examples that Jesus gave us when it came to building relationships, spiritual growth, reliance on God, and servitude. Several references were made to him getting up early to pray, his evangelism, his meeting of needs, his love. Jesus had a busy ministry. How is yours? Proverbs on laziness: 6:6-11; 10:4,26; 12:24,27; 13:4; 15:19; 19:15,24; 20:4; 21:25; 22:13; 24:30-34; 26:13-16. What attributes of a sluggard do you recognize in yourself? Do you think of these as serious?

Proverbs 13:4 …but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied. How diligent are you in your reading of the scriptures or in your prayer life? What do you long for eagerly or ask God for earnestly?

Water. Where it's plentiful, we tend to take it for granted, like air. We linger in the shower, hose down a dirty car, and let sprinklers spurt for hours to keep the lawn green. Not so in the desert, where even plants hoard water with nimble defenses. There, water takes on a mythical nature where taunting visions of pools and streams dance in the heat waves. A craving for water eliminates all other thoughts, and one spoonful, on a parched tongue, is worth gold--and so is the word of God.

Moses

God chose to use Moses as an instrument to deliver his chosen people (the Israelites) from the bonds of slavery after hearing their cries and seeing their suffering. I believe God longed to see his people learn to trust and depend on him and worship him. However, because of their sinful nature and their lack of faith God allowed them to wander in the desert for forty years until a generation of them died off. Moses developed a strong desire for the Lord as he led his people out of slavery and was forced to roam in the desert for forty years because of their lack of faith and continuous grumbling.

Exodus 17:1-7 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses replied, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?" But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?" Then Moses cried out to the LORD, "What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me."

The LORD answered Moses, "Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink." So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?"

Psalm 106:13-15 But they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his counsel. In the desert they gave in to their craving; in the wasteland they put God to the test. So he gave them what they asked for, but sent a wasting disease upon them. I’ve heard it said that it is neither God nor the devil that tempts us but our own evil desires. When we decide to continuously act out our sinful desires, God let’s the sin take its course. This is the wasting disease that comes upon us—the sin that produces more sin and eventually ends in death.

Psalm 10:3 The LORD does not let the righteous go hungry but he thwarts the craving of the wicked. When we seek God’s direction, he provides it. We can either accept it or resist it. Study it on your own.

Read Isaiah 38:1

When the doctor solemnly pronounces a disease terminal, who doesn't crave a second chance? Vv.1 “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.” After Isaiah announced to Hezekiah that his disease would be fatal, Hezekiah did not give up. Vv.2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord. He wept bitterly and asked God to remember his devotion. In response, God sent Isaiah back with an amazing message: vv. 5 I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. He had granted Hezekiah fifteen additional years. Here, as so often in the Bible, God changes events because of prayer.

How’s your prayer life? Do you ask God earnestly to help you change your character?

Matthew 3:17, Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:21-22

And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."

As I reflect back on my relationship with my father, oh how I would love to here him say those words about me. In my heart I know he loves me and I also know he’s proud of most of the choices I’ve made in my life, but it sure would be nice to hear him just say it. Regardless of whether my biological father says it or not, I want to know that my father in heaven is saying it about me. Most of us probably know God loves us, but how pleased is he? Probably not very much! How do we please God? By doing his will. How earnestly do you focus on doing God’s will? Read Job 1 to see how he accepted God’s will. Read Psalm 37:3-6 For David’s approach to trusting God.

I found myself wandering through a lot of scripture while doing this study and I’ve decided that I have a lot more to learn about my own cravings, desires, longings, needs, etc. So, here are some other scriptures you can use to conduct your own study on craving.

Some additional scripture to use:

1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

Ephesians 2:1-5 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.

Psalm 42:1-4

¹As the deer pants for streams of water,

so my soul pants for you, O God.

²My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

When can I go and meet with God?

³My tears have been my food

day and night,

while men say to me all day long,

"Where is your God?"

⁴These things I remember

as I pour out my soul:

how I used to go with the multitude,

leading the procession to the house of God,

with shouts of joy and thanksgiving

among the festive throng.

Roman 13:14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

Luke 2:25-40 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

"Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel."

The child's father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too."

There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.