"Help for the Hungry Soul" (Kristen Wetherell)

TITLE: Help for the Hungry Soul: Eight Encouragements to Grow Your Appetite for God's Word
AUTHOR: Kristen Wetherell
PUBLISHER: Wheaton, IL: Crossway Publishers, 2023, (176 pages).
 

The Word of God nourishes our souls and fills our insatiable appetite for Truth. The Bible gives us God's Message to help us live toward righteousness in Christ. Like the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus assures us that His Word is living water to the thirsty. Like the way He multiplied the loaves of bread and the fish, He provides for all our needs and satisfies the hungry. Yet, many of us choose to go hungry for all the wrong reasons. We feed on unhealthy food. We make poor choices. Worse, we ignore the good food that is readily available to us. How do we long for nutritious food? Author Kristen Wetherell gives us 8 ways to do just that. Calling it "Eight Encouragements," she shares about her own journey to fill her hungry soul. These ways are not methods or strategies but reasons to fill our souls with the Word of God. She asserts that we are "born hungry," and specifically, we are born to hunger for God. She writes for people especially believers who do not seem to have a desire for the Word of God.  She describes such people as those who are "not hungry enough to engage," "not sure what to do about it," and those who hunger for things other than God's Word. These eight encouragements are to:

1. Recognize our Hunger (Starving, Seeking, or Satisfying)
2. Plead for a Holy Hunger
3. Focus on Jesus
4. Remember the Privilege
5. Feast with our Church
6. Feed Creatively
7. Trust God's Nourishing Work
8. Embrace our Hunger

Accompanying each chapter is a story to illustrate the application side of the teaching. Many of them are testimonies from believers who have struggled and overcame their Bible reading and spiritual challenges. The author hopes that this book will stir up our hearts to hunger for God's Word even more.

My Thoughts

There is a troubling pattern about Bible literacy these days. Many people are distracted by the temptations of the world, social media, and attractions that come in all shapes and sizes. Rather than to try and hammer in the need for believers to read the Bible regularly, author Kristen Wetherell takes a soft approach to encourage us to recognize our inner hunger, open up our Bibles, and read away. Many of us are anxious to tackle the daily issues of the world without adequate levels of equipping. This is unwise as pointed out by Wetherell. Rather than allow guilt to prick our spiritual conscience, she hopes that we will be inspired to read the Bible not out of obligation but of true desire. Let me offer some thoughts for three groups of people: The uninitiated who are unaware of their spiritual hunger; the struggler who don't know how to feed, and those who desire more. For the uninitiated, the starting point is recognition. For the struggler, the starting point is a fresh dose of inspiration. For those who desire more earnestly, the starting point can be anywhere. In this latter case, they can be thrown into any situation but their spiritual senses will always point them to True North. 

For the uninitiated, I think the first two sets of encouragement are the most relevant and important. It involves the need to deal with distractions so that one can focus on the necessary. There are too many add-ons in life. I like the way Wetherell highlights the five common hindrances to Bible reading. She provides a helpful five Ds to help us remember what they are: Distraction, Dullness, Deceit, Discouragement, and Desires. That is why the second encouragement to ask God to help us long for His Word is critical. We need God's help to see the barriers to our spiritual longing. Apart from the first two encouragements, there are others like feasting with the Church that can be powerful. Reading together with others can have many benefits. The key here is to recognize that one needs direction by looking at one's personal spiritual compass. 

For the struggler, there is a need to bring some freshness to the Bible reading. The key here is not to give up. With the different ways to read creatively and the power of community, the struggler can be brought back to a new love for the Word of God. Sometimes, it is not simply about trying to discipline ourselves in our devotions but dealing with blockages or discouragement. Learn to use the many resources available to us today. We have been blessed with the ready availability of materials today. I remember a time when one needs to spend lots of money to buy atlases, commentaries, dictionaries, and different Bible translations. Nowadays, many of these are freely available on the Internet. That said, using the Internet does bring an additional layer of distractions. This is something that we need to pray about too. The struggler might have a spinning compass, so the key is really to learn to settle down our spiritual compass and keep on feeding away.

Finally, to those who already have that holy hunger in them, read on and encourage others to embark on their own journeys as well. 

Today, getting people to read books is already a challenge in itself, let alone the Bible. Thus, I feel that we need more reminders like this book to help us overcome the many distractions of life, so that we can recognize our true hunger for the Truth of God's Word.

Kristen Wetherell is a wife, mother, writer, and speaker. She is the author of several books, including Help for the Hungry Soul, and coauthor of the award-winning book Hope When It Hurts. Kristen is a member of the Orchard and lives in Chicagoland with her husband and three children.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5.

conrade

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This book has been provided courtesy of Crossway Publishers via NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.