Hunger is the first prayer because hunger is the memory of Eden.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart…” That means God planted something eternal inside us—a trace of where we came from and where we’re headed.

The early Church often saw that “eternity” as a kind of deep memory of union with God, an inner knowing that we were made for Him. Augustine put it this way: “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.” It’s as if eternity in our hearts is the homesickness of the soul.

Deep in every human is a faint memory: we were made to walk with God in the cool of the day. Sin fractured that, but it didn’t erase the echo. That’s why even people far from God feel an ache they can’t name.

When you feel that ache, “There has to be more than this," you are remembering, in some mysterious way, what you were made for: friendship with God.

The enemy wants to twist that hunger into addiction, distraction, and self-medication. Jesus wants to answer it with His Holy Presence.

You were not created for distance. You were created to walk with God in the Garden.