Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry for help come to you. 2 Do not hide your face from me when I am in distress. Turn your ear to me; when I call, answer me quickly. 3 For my days vanish like smoke; my bones burn like glowing embers. 4 My heart is blighted and withered like grass; I forget to eat my food.  Psalm 102:1-4 NIV

Like the Psalmist in the above text, some people—seeking a speedy answer in prayer—have no appetite for God’s Word because they are so overwhelmed by their affliction, grief and troubles. Some are just apathetic or indifferent; some are just sincerely ignorant; and, others are conscientious stupid—not realizing that if you don’t eat, you will die. You are what you eat, and you’re not what you don’t eat.

Is a loss of spiritual appetite—not feeling hungry— a common condition among many Christians today, as it was in Israel during the days of the Prophet Amos? (See Amos 8:11-13). Is there a famine in our land? Famine is an acute shortage of food. Spiritually, it is a drought of the Word of God.  It is ironic that in the land, where God first reveal His Word, and where the Living Word became incarnated (Israel), that there was a famine of God’s Word for a long time.

Naturally, a loss of appetite can cause weigh loss, depression, stress, and in some cases, nauseous. The spiritual parallel to these  conditions are: if you don’t eat a steady diet of the Word of God, you can experience a loss sense of God’s glory, a lack of joy, feeling stressed rather than blessed, and spiritual nausea, i.e., having feelings of guilt and condemnation.

Spiritually, a loss of appetite for the Word, or a lack of desire for God and the things of God and His righteousness will cause a loss of “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” in you (Eph. 4:13). Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount that, “Blessed are those who do hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matt.5:6). In other words, “blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled” (Luke 6:21). You’ve got to be hungry now!

If you’ve lost your appetite for hearing the Word of God, you can regain it. How? You must find the Word; be fed and eat it! (Jer. 15:16; John 21:15-17). God doesn’t excuse willful ignorance or stupidity (Hos. 4:6). It is ignorance or stupidity to be content with a loss of appetite when the promised blessings of God are offered to those, who in fact, hunger and thirst.  Jesus Christ and His Word is food for the soul (John 6:32-35).  Again, you are what you eat, and you’re not what you don’t eat!