Crave

Are cravings good?  or bad?

Why do we have them and what can we do about them?

I believe God made us to CRAVE....to crave Him.

Crave - Something you long for, desire eagerly, and beg for.

Generally when someone says they have a craving for something, our minds immediately go to food.  Sugary, fatty, salty, high calorie food.  Why are we so weak against those candy sprinkled, chocolate coated donuts and can turn our noses to what is good for our bodies? 

The same question can be asked of our desire to do what we know is wrong instead of doing what is right.  Following our will instead of God's will for our lives.  

1 John 2: 15-16  "Do not love the world or anything in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him.  For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does - comes not from the Father but from the world".

Satan tries to tempt us in 3 ways:
     *  The cravings of the sinful man
     *  The lust of his eyes
     *  The boasting of what he has or does

Cravings of a sinful man are misplaced physical desires.  Does that hit home at all?  Sexual sin.  Putting things into our body that make it feel better.  Food, drugs.  
Lust of eyes - getting our material desires met outside the will of God.  Do you shop excessively to make yourself feel better?  Buy things you don't need?  Then live with regret afterward?  
Boasting - do you crave attention and praise from people?  Long for acceptance from someone other than the Lord?  Do you brag about your accomplishments so you can receive praise?

Wow, this is a humbling idea.  That we can CRAVE in all areas of our life besides our diet.   It's eye opening.  What we were created to crave was a relationship with our Heavenly Father.  What we should long for, eagerly want and beg for is GOD.  Only God.   Eve was tempted in the Garden and she gave into that craving...Jesus was tempted in the desert after 40 days and He didn't.  What was different?  He stood on the WORD OF GOD.  Eve was saturated with the object of her desire.  Jesus was saturated in God's word.   Eve craved what she focused on.  We consume what we think about.

So, what do you crave today?  What occupies your thoughts more than God's will for your life?  Do you saturate your mind with His word, or the object of your desire?   

Psalm 84:1-2  How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty?  My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God"