Surviving Spiritual Famine: the Importance of God's Word in the West

Amos 8:11-13 reads: "Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord God, "when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it. In that day the lovely virgins and the young men shall faint for thirst."

These verses describe a time of spiritual famine, where people will search for the word of the Lord but not find it. It's a stark warning that speaks to the importance of God's word in the lives of first-world residents who have plenty of physical ‘bread and water’, intellectual knowledge, but starved when it comes to spiritual sustenance.

As evangelicals, we often place a high value on the Bible and its importance in our faith. But how often do we take the time to truly engage with it? Do we treat it as a checklist item to mark off each day, or do we hunger for it as a vital source of spiritual sustenance?

As Charles Spurgeon wrote, "We must hunger and thirst after righteousness, so that the soul may be filled with the good things of God." In a world that bombards us with distractions and noise, it's easy to neglect the spiritual nourishment that only the word of God can provide.

John Piper echoes this sentiment when he writes, "The Word of God is not a succession of isolated texts but a coherent and purposeful whole, culminating in the revelation of the glory of God in the face of Christ." When we approach the Bible with a hunger for God's glory, we open ourselves up to receive the spiritual nourishment that we so desperately need.

In a world that often feels spiritually dry and desolate, the words of Amos remind us that we cannot survive without the word of the Lord. As we seek to grow in our faith and knowledge of God, let us approach the Bible with a hunger and thirst that can only be satisfied by His living water.

Let us close with the words of A.W. Tozer: "The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts." May we seek this knowledge and delight in God's presence through His word, and may it sustain us through any spiritual famine that may come our way.