Do You Have an Appetite?
Do You Have an Appetite?
Scripture Focus
James 1:18–22: “In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures… But everyone must be quick to hear… Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.”
Key Truth: The new life God creates in us produces a new desire to hear, receive, and obey His Word.
Sermon Reflection
One of the clearest signs of physical life is appetite. A newborn baby does not need to be taught to become hungry. Hunger comes because life is already present. In the same way, Scripture teaches us that when God gives us new spiritual life, that life begins producing new desires. Peter tells believers to be “like newborn babies” who “long for the pure milk of the word” so that by it they may grow (1 Peter 2:2). The hunger does not create the life; the life produces the hunger.
That is important as we begin walking through James 1:19–27. James reminds us in verse 18 that God “brought us forth by the word of truth.” Before James tells us to hear the Word, receive the Word, or obey the Word, he reminds us of what God has already done: He gave us life. Christianity does not begin with spiritually dead people deciding to improve themselves. It begins with a gracious God making sinners alive through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
But the new life God gives does not remain unchanged. God uses His Word to grow the people He has made alive. That means our relationship with Scripture cannot merely be measured by how much biblical information we possess. We can hear sermons, attend Bible studies, memorize verses, understand doctrine, and still resist the authority of the very Word we know. Familiarity with the Word is not the same as submission to the Word. The deeper question is: What happens in me when God speaks? Do I merely hear Him, or am I increasingly willing to receive His truth and obey Him?
How Should I Respond?
This week, don't begin merely by asking yourself, “How much Bible am I reading?” Ask the deeper question: What does my appetite reveal about what is happening in my heart? Maybe you are a new believer and sometimes feel overwhelmed by Scripture. Don't become discouraged. You don't have to understand everything before you begin feeding on God's Word. Keep eating. Keep reading. Keep listening. Keep asking questions. Keep gathering with God's people. God uses His Word to grow His children.
Maybe you have been walking with Christ for years, but your appetite is not what it once was. Instead of simply feeling guilty, ask yourself, “What have I been feeding?” What has been occupying your mind? What voice has become louder than God's voice? What desires have you continually fed that now compete with your desire for Him? Some appetites need to be starved, while your appetite for God's truth needs to be intentionally fed.
And maybe you know Scripture well. Your danger may not be a lack of information but a lack of transformation. Ask yourself: After everything I have heard from God's Word, where should my life look different by now? Is God's Word changing how you speak, forgive, handle conflict, use your resources, love your family, and respond when you are wrong? Don't simply ask whether you have heard the Word. Ask whether the Word is increasingly governing you.
Weekly Prayer
Father, thank You that my salvation began with Your grace and not my effort. You brought me forth by the word of truth and gave me new life through Jesus Christ. Forgive me for the times I have allowed other desires, voices, and distractions to compete with my hunger for You. Give me a growing appetite for Your Word. Teach me not merely to hear Scripture but to humbly receive what You say, especially when Your Word confronts me. By Your Spirit, expose what needs to be put away and cultivate within me desires that please You. Let Your truth shape my thoughts, words, relationships, decisions, and actions. Make me not merely a hearer of Your Word but a doer. In Jesus' name, amen.
Five-Day Application Plan
Day 1 — Examine Your Appetite
Read: 1 Peter 1:23–2:3
Peter connects being born again with developing a hunger for God's Word. Today, don't begin by measuring how many chapters you read. Examine your desire. Ask yourself: What am I hungry for spiritually right now? Write down the things that have received most of your attention, affection, and mental energy recently. Then ask whether those things are strengthening or weakening your appetite for God.
Today's action: Set aside intentional, uninterrupted time to read Scripture—not merely to complete a task, but to hear from God.
Day 2 — Examine What You Are Feeding
Read: 1 Peter 2:1–3
Notice that Peter describes both putting aside and longing for. Spiritual growth involves both. There are desires we must stop feeding and desires we must intentionally cultivate. Ask: What have I been feeding that is competing with my hunger for God? It may be entertainment, social media, bitterness, comparison, gossip, anger, materialism, or simply constant distraction.
Today's action: Identify one thing that has been consuming too much of your attention and intentionally reduce its influence today. Replace some of that time with Scripture and prayer.
Day 3 — Let the Word Contradict You
Read: James 1:19–21
It is easy to love Scripture when Scripture agrees with us. Maturity is revealed when God's Word confronts something we would rather defend. As you read today, don't only look for encouragement. Ask: “Lord, where does Your Word disagree with me?” Maybe Scripture confronts your attitude, speech, priorities, relationships, spending, unforgiveness, pride, or behavior.
Today's action: When Scripture exposes something, resist the urge to defend yourself. Write down what God is showing you and pray, “Lord, help me receive Your Word with humility.”
Day 4 — Move From Information to Transformation
Read: James 1:22–25
James warns us that hearing without doing can become self-deception. So consider an uncomfortable question: After everything I have heard from God's Word, where should I be more mature by now?
Today's action: Choose one truth you already know and intentionally obey it today.
Don't look for something new until you have considered what you are doing with what God has already shown you.
Day 5 — Remember Who Gave You Life
Read: James 1:18
End the week where James begins: “In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth…”
Your hope is not ultimately in the strength of your appetite.
Your hope is in the God who gave you life.
Before there was appetite, there was grace.
Before there was obedience, there was grace.
Before there was your response to God, there was God's gracious work in you.
So don't finish this week merely promising, “I'm going to try harder.” Finish by remembering the gospel. Christ lived the righteous life you could not live. He died for your sins, was buried, and rose again. God gives life to those who trust in Christ, and the God who gives life continues His work in the people He has made alive.
Today's action: Spend time thanking God specifically for His work of grace in your life. Then pray:“Lord, because You have given me life, deepen my appetite for You.”
Final Thought
A newborn does not cry for milk in order to become alive. The baby cries because life is already there. The same is true spiritually. We do not hunger for God's Word so that we can earn life from God. We hunger because God, by His grace, has made us alive in Christ. So the question this week is not merely: “Did I read my Bible?” The deeper question is: “Has God so changed my heart that there is something within me that wants to hear my Master speak?”
Where there is new life, there will be new appetite. And where there is new appetite, there will increasingly be a desire to hear, receive, and obey the Word of God.
Scripture Focus
James 1:18–22: “In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures… But everyone must be quick to hear… Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.”
Key Truth: The new life God creates in us produces a new desire to hear, receive, and obey His Word.
Sermon Reflection
One of the clearest signs of physical life is appetite. A newborn baby does not need to be taught to become hungry. Hunger comes because life is already present. In the same way, Scripture teaches us that when God gives us new spiritual life, that life begins producing new desires. Peter tells believers to be “like newborn babies” who “long for the pure milk of the word” so that by it they may grow (1 Peter 2:2). The hunger does not create the life; the life produces the hunger.
That is important as we begin walking through James 1:19–27. James reminds us in verse 18 that God “brought us forth by the word of truth.” Before James tells us to hear the Word, receive the Word, or obey the Word, he reminds us of what God has already done: He gave us life. Christianity does not begin with spiritually dead people deciding to improve themselves. It begins with a gracious God making sinners alive through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
But the new life God gives does not remain unchanged. God uses His Word to grow the people He has made alive. That means our relationship with Scripture cannot merely be measured by how much biblical information we possess. We can hear sermons, attend Bible studies, memorize verses, understand doctrine, and still resist the authority of the very Word we know. Familiarity with the Word is not the same as submission to the Word. The deeper question is: What happens in me when God speaks? Do I merely hear Him, or am I increasingly willing to receive His truth and obey Him?
How Should I Respond?
This week, don't begin merely by asking yourself, “How much Bible am I reading?” Ask the deeper question: What does my appetite reveal about what is happening in my heart? Maybe you are a new believer and sometimes feel overwhelmed by Scripture. Don't become discouraged. You don't have to understand everything before you begin feeding on God's Word. Keep eating. Keep reading. Keep listening. Keep asking questions. Keep gathering with God's people. God uses His Word to grow His children.
Maybe you have been walking with Christ for years, but your appetite is not what it once was. Instead of simply feeling guilty, ask yourself, “What have I been feeding?” What has been occupying your mind? What voice has become louder than God's voice? What desires have you continually fed that now compete with your desire for Him? Some appetites need to be starved, while your appetite for God's truth needs to be intentionally fed.
And maybe you know Scripture well. Your danger may not be a lack of information but a lack of transformation. Ask yourself: After everything I have heard from God's Word, where should my life look different by now? Is God's Word changing how you speak, forgive, handle conflict, use your resources, love your family, and respond when you are wrong? Don't simply ask whether you have heard the Word. Ask whether the Word is increasingly governing you.
Weekly Prayer
Father, thank You that my salvation began with Your grace and not my effort. You brought me forth by the word of truth and gave me new life through Jesus Christ. Forgive me for the times I have allowed other desires, voices, and distractions to compete with my hunger for You. Give me a growing appetite for Your Word. Teach me not merely to hear Scripture but to humbly receive what You say, especially when Your Word confronts me. By Your Spirit, expose what needs to be put away and cultivate within me desires that please You. Let Your truth shape my thoughts, words, relationships, decisions, and actions. Make me not merely a hearer of Your Word but a doer. In Jesus' name, amen.
Five-Day Application Plan
Day 1 — Examine Your Appetite
Read: 1 Peter 1:23–2:3
Peter connects being born again with developing a hunger for God's Word. Today, don't begin by measuring how many chapters you read. Examine your desire. Ask yourself: What am I hungry for spiritually right now? Write down the things that have received most of your attention, affection, and mental energy recently. Then ask whether those things are strengthening or weakening your appetite for God.
Today's action: Set aside intentional, uninterrupted time to read Scripture—not merely to complete a task, but to hear from God.
Day 2 — Examine What You Are Feeding
Read: 1 Peter 2:1–3
Notice that Peter describes both putting aside and longing for. Spiritual growth involves both. There are desires we must stop feeding and desires we must intentionally cultivate. Ask: What have I been feeding that is competing with my hunger for God? It may be entertainment, social media, bitterness, comparison, gossip, anger, materialism, or simply constant distraction.
Today's action: Identify one thing that has been consuming too much of your attention and intentionally reduce its influence today. Replace some of that time with Scripture and prayer.
Day 3 — Let the Word Contradict You
Read: James 1:19–21
It is easy to love Scripture when Scripture agrees with us. Maturity is revealed when God's Word confronts something we would rather defend. As you read today, don't only look for encouragement. Ask: “Lord, where does Your Word disagree with me?” Maybe Scripture confronts your attitude, speech, priorities, relationships, spending, unforgiveness, pride, or behavior.
Today's action: When Scripture exposes something, resist the urge to defend yourself. Write down what God is showing you and pray, “Lord, help me receive Your Word with humility.”
Day 4 — Move From Information to Transformation
Read: James 1:22–25
James warns us that hearing without doing can become self-deception. So consider an uncomfortable question: After everything I have heard from God's Word, where should I be more mature by now?
- If you have heard about forgiveness for years, are you becoming more forgiving?
- If you have heard about humility for years, are you becoming more humble?
- If you have heard about controlling the tongue for years, is your speech changing?
- If you have heard about loving others for years, are you becoming easier to love and more willing to love?
Today's action: Choose one truth you already know and intentionally obey it today.
Don't look for something new until you have considered what you are doing with what God has already shown you.
Day 5 — Remember Who Gave You Life
Read: James 1:18
End the week where James begins: “In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth…”
Your hope is not ultimately in the strength of your appetite.
Your hope is in the God who gave you life.
Before there was appetite, there was grace.
Before there was obedience, there was grace.
Before there was your response to God, there was God's gracious work in you.
So don't finish this week merely promising, “I'm going to try harder.” Finish by remembering the gospel. Christ lived the righteous life you could not live. He died for your sins, was buried, and rose again. God gives life to those who trust in Christ, and the God who gives life continues His work in the people He has made alive.
Today's action: Spend time thanking God specifically for His work of grace in your life. Then pray:“Lord, because You have given me life, deepen my appetite for You.”
Final Thought
A newborn does not cry for milk in order to become alive. The baby cries because life is already there. The same is true spiritually. We do not hunger for God's Word so that we can earn life from God. We hunger because God, by His grace, has made us alive in Christ. So the question this week is not merely: “Did I read my Bible?” The deeper question is: “Has God so changed my heart that there is something within me that wants to hear my Master speak?”
Where there is new life, there will be new appetite. And where there is new appetite, there will increasingly be a desire to hear, receive, and obey the Word of God.
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