No one craves chocolate unless they’ve tasted it. For more than 50 years I didn’t give a hoot about chocolate. I’d tasted chocolate many time.
But not REAL chocolate. A few years ago my husband remarked, “I would really love some chocolate.”
Huh?
We’d been married thirty years. I didn’t buy chocolate. We didn’t eat chocolate. And he’d never mentioned it.
So I bought him chocolate. An assortment of mini-bars:
- Some milk chocolate.
- Some dark.
- Some with peanuts.
- Some with crunch.
What’s better than making someone you love happy with such little effort?
All Chocolate Is Not Equal
I tried the milk chocolate. Nope. Not a fan. Then the dark.
That was as entirely different matter. I discovered the taste of real chocolate. Dark. Dense. Devoid of obvious sweetness.
Now I eat chocolate every day. Not a lot. But some. Ninety-percent pure cocoa. DARK! Until I tried dark chocolate I dismissed it. Didn’t care for it. Didn’t crave it.
“No thanks.”
Is God Appealing?
No one craves relationship with a deity they’ve never met. Even then, there must be an attraction – a connection.
An appeal.
Something personal.
By invitation.
Everyone knows what they like and don’t like. You can’t crave something you haven’t tasted or something you tasted that put a sour expression on your face.
Not to diss milk chocolate, but it works as an analogy. If you meet a milk chocolate savior you don’t crave more, but milk chocolate is diluted with all kinds of other stuff. It’s not pure.
“No thanks. I’m good.”
Without the craving for more, there’s no relationship. No search. No daily dose. No future. People respond to the gospel because God gives them both the taste and the craving.
“It is God who creates the need of which no human is conscious until He manifests Himself. Jesus said, “Ask and it shall be given to you.” But God cannot give until a man asks.” – Oswald Chambers
Jesus Christ is pure, as in 100% chocolate. I’m not sure I’d even find that palatable. If I was pure spirit I could handle a 100% God. But there’s still a flesh component to anyone in a mortal body.
We can’t conceive of part of Who God is, much less the whole.
Obedience to Christ is essential, but never compelled.
Craving Relationship with Christ
Obedience to Christ comes from craving relationship with Him. We ask. For more. For more of Him. Jesus Christ is a daily need to those in whom God places the desire. The result is obedience. We love Him. Chocolate is bliss to my husband. Now it’s always in the pantry. He indulges daily.
Obedience proves our love for Christ.
Love is always other-directed. We obey God’s Word because we love Him. But He loved us first. There is no rule about liking chocolate and no one was ever forced to obey Christ. Because love, and the cravings it produces, is voluntary.
Jesus. I gotta have Him.
Every day.
Every hour.
Blessed is the man You choose, and cause to approach You, that he may dwell in Your courts. – Psalm 65:4
Related post: How To Be Sure You’ll Meet The Real Jesus
Why do you believe what you do?
Take the challenge presented in Rapture and Revelation. It doesn’t tell you what to believe, but presses you to discern why you believe as you do.
