cravings. Or, to use a different word: desires. These desires may be immediate and seemingly superficial, like the craving for food or the craving for good marks on a test. Others are closer to the core of our being: the craving for love, belonging, or truth. The universality of cravings provides us with a profound point of engagement and discussion with all people no matter their spiritual interest or religious affiliation. The pursuit of our souls cravings can lead each of us to discover the reason for our existence in order to find a way to resolve them.
As an evangelistic platform, myCravings provides a framework for a variety of entry points into both our brokenness and our need for God. Through cravings we can explore: 1. What are the cravings we have and why do we have them, 2. What are the false and unsatisfying ways we attempt to resolve our cravings and 3. How to present the source of true fulfillmentJesus.
CRAVINGS & THE GOSPEL
The way in which our cravings affect us, and how the Gospel intersects with those heart desires are complete. Just as people are complex, so are our cravings. Ultimately, the desires of the human heart are designed to draw a person to their greatest needa right relationship with God. But, we are flawed and so are our cravings. Simply telling people that they should crave Cravings Explained
As an evangelistic platform, myCravings provides a framework for a variety of entry points into both our brokenness and our need for God. Through cravings we can explore:
1. What are the cravings we have and why do we have them, 2. What are the false and unsatisfying ways we attempt to resolve our cravings and 3. How to present the source of true fulfillmentJesus.
" Jesus or that Jesus is a merely a means to fulfill cravings for love, peace or power is erroneous. Here are a few different lenses you can apply to the framework of cravings that can help different people understand their need for God.
CRAVINGS AS EVIDENCE FOR A GOD-CRAVING
Erwin McManus, author of Soul Cravings describes cravings this way:
There are these cravings within me, though, that pull on me like an addiction. They have always been with me and have even at times tormented me. They go far deeper than any physical addiction ever could. Beyond my flesh, beyond my mind, beyond my heart, there seems to be a place where my deepest and most power cravings lie. And they do not lie silently. My soul, it seems, always desires and demands, and no matter how I try to satisfy it, it always craves more. (pp. 6-7, Soul Cravings Prequel)
We try to fill ourselves with everything we can grab, and yet there remains an inescapable emptiness within. Even when weve looked everywhere else, even when theres nowhere else to look, we still somehow neglect to consider the possibility that what our souls long for is God. We cant take enough or make enough to fill the hollowness within us. No matter what we try or do we cant avoid the void. (pp. 52, Soul Cravings Prequel)
Cravings are evidence that we are designed for something more. Yes, we are designed for meaning, and love and achievement; however, the fact that we crave those things points us to an ultimate reality. Additionally, it is our inability to come to a place of satisfaction that points us to the question, What if the central craving of your soul, is a craving for God?
C.S Lewis in The Weight of Glory put it this way:
A mans physical hunger does not prove that man will get any bread; he may die of starvation on a raft in the Atlantic. But surely a mans hunger does prove that he comes of a race, which repairs its body by eating and inhabits a world where eatable substances exist. In the same way, though I do not believe (I wish I did) that my desire for Paradise proves that I shall enjoy it, I think it a pretty good indication that such a thing exists....
Exploring the universality of cravings is a wonderful starting point for conversation and exploration into the spiritual dimension of our lives. Could it be that a craving for love means we were made for true unconditional love? What if our craving for freedom means that true freedom is possible? Begin here, and then introduce the eternal love and freedom (for example) that is found in God alone.
CRAVINGS AS FALSE HOPES OR IDOLS
Most of the cravings we have are good things: a craving for love, meaning,
# success, or happiness. But what happens to us when those good things become the ultimate thing? How do we deal with the reality of their diminishing ability to satisfy? What happens to us when we elevate a created thing to the place of saviour looking for justification, joy, freedom and meaning?
Timothy Keller, the author of Counterfeit Gods, explains it this way:
The very things upon which these people were building all their happiness turned to dust in their hands because they had built all their happiness upon them. In each case, a good thing among many was turned into a supreme thing, so that its demands overrode all competing values. But counterfeit gods always disappoint, and often destructively so. We think idols are bad things, but that is almost never the case. The greater the good, the more likely we are to expect that it can satisfy our deepest needs and hopes. Anything can serve as a counterfeit god, especially the very best things in life. (Keller, pp. xvii xvii)
Good things raised to an ultimate height always disappoint. Do not be fooled. Setting up any good thing to the place of your greatest hope will bring disappointment and ultimately despair.
Keller asks with great clarity:
What makes us uncontrollably angry, anxious, or despondent? What racks us with guilt we cant shake? Idols control us, since we feel we must have them or life is meaningless. (Keller, p. xxii)
Is there something here too important to me, something I must have at all costs? (Keller, p. 169)
The intense danger of these false hopes or idols is that as we look to them to give us meaning, hope, and happiness, they inevitably fail to deliver. In order to maintain any sliver of happiness achieved, we must work harder and sacrifice more to keep a hold on its ever-diminishing satisfaction. We soon find ourselves making choices that require sacrifices beyond what we are prepared to give. These idols end up taking our life rather than delivering the life they promised.
Exploring the controlling power of cravings and their inability to truly satisfy is yet another way to use cravings to bring people to an understanding of their need for Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is unique. He is able to deal with the seemingly bottomless appetite of our cravings. He also is able to reorient our misplaced affections from created things to Himselfthe inexhaustible Creator. He alone can satisfy us.
CRAVINGS & EVANGELISM
The best way to use the paradigm of cravings evangelistically is to
$ prayerfully explore your own personal cravings.
o What desires drove you before coming to know Christ? o How did Christ reveal your need for Him through these cravings?
Next, consider how God needs to reorient your cravings right now.
o Are you finding satisfaction in Jesus alone? o What cravings have snuck into the centre of your happiness and become your practical saviour?
I am not asking whether or not you have rival gods. I assume that we all do; they are hidden in every one of us. The question is: What do we do about them? How can we become increasingly clear-sighted rather than remaining in their power? (Keller. p. 167)
Repent of those things that you have built your happiness upon. Turn to Christ and rejoice in Him. Contemplate and accept His love. Learn to love Him more. With His love as the focus of your hearts affections and life, you will be free to love the people and good things in your life rightly. Set Christ in His rightful place and establish Him as the true King of your life and affections.
Start with these two considerations concerning your own cravings and from here you will be able to understand the cravings that drive those around you. Only as you are experiencing Christs transformative work in your own life will you be able to authentically relate to the challenge of helping others see their cravings clearly and set Christ in His rightful place.
Lastly, please note that as you engage with people using cravings it may be helpful to identify in your own mind which of the two craving paradigms you are working from. It can be confusing if you jump between them in one conversation.
May God firstly work in your own life to help you be amazed at His creative design of you and your cravings, and secondly, continue to transform you as you surrender your idols and find complete satisfaction in Jesus alone.