Faith

by Debbie Wallis

preforming in church The things we accumulate in life can’t satisfy us and will never fulfil our God given purpose Only God can fill our deepest hunger pains your search will end in disappointment You can hear the grumbling of hunger pains on Facebook, in Hollywood and from bars to Bible classes an idol could be a spouse, a child, sleep, food, sports, or a growing retirement fund Resist the idols and find your hunger satisfied in God

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied,” Matthew 5:6

Many Christians spend years listening to sermons, reading Scripture, and even teaching Sunday school classes, but fail to enjoy an intimate relationship with God Some could pass a theological exam or answer any Bible trivia question but they don’t hunger and thirst to know God personally, to be filled with His presence or to be changed into His likeness. Religion without relationship is empty…just as unfulfilling as a marriage without relationship. Don’t be the Christian who’s like the hunger toddler, who could wait and have a wonderful meal at 6:00 but finds parts of his lunch on the floor at 5:40 and eats it At 7:30 that toddler is unsatisfied and ready for a cookie just to get through the night Instead of craving a satisfying relationship with the God who made us, we settle for a house, a family, a few friends, a job and a yearly vacation You cannot survive with a little bit of religion on holidays or “Guilty Sundays” when your kids are

“O God, You are my God, earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You, my body longs for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water,” Psalm 63:1 Only God can bring fulfillment to our lives because He made us to live in harmony with Him. Scripture does not instruct us to love another person with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. That’s investing too much in any human being. There are no perfect human relationships People will eventually let you down but God never will He loves you unconditionally, He knows all your faults and He will never change We are to love others and there is no dispute about that “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul And the second is like it; Love your neighbor as yourself,” Matthew 22:36-40

Many people identify their hunger as the need for a relationship but they look for the perfect relationship with another person. You cannot fill the void with a parent, spouse, or a child. The place to invest your heart, soul, mind, and strength is with God and God alone. God is self-sufficient and needs nothing, including us, to be complete Yet, He loves us so much, so overwhelmingly, that He wants us to benefit from a true relationship with Him as Father He relentlessly pursues us as a shepherd for his sheep, as a father for his child, as a mother for her baby, as a groom for his bride No human relationship, no job, no possession, and no amount of money or success can ultimately satisfy you Until you understand and respond to His love,

People from outside the church and inside the church have failed to recognize those hunger pains are a longing for God In Scripture there is a word to describe any attempt to find true life in anyone or anything other than God: idolatry In that sense

“Jesus replied; ‘I am the Bread that gives life! No one who comes to Me will ever be hungry No one who has faith in Me will ever be thirsty”

Matthew 6:35

If you don’t have a Bible please contact me at sfadebbie@yahoo com and I will provide you one

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Students set to pray at the pole

Students will gather around the Howe ISD campus flag poles on Monday morning, August 24 at 7:30 to pray as a collection of students for the upcoming school year

This is not a new activity, as Howe students and students across the country have gathered to pray for many years. A seperate event called "See You at the Pole" is set for Sept 23 in what is called the Global Week of Student Prayer

The week-long event will actually take place from Sunday, Sept 20 through Saturday, Sept 26

For the last 25 years, See You at the Pole has been about one simple act prayer. SYATP is still about students uniting themselves in prayer before God interceding for their generation.