“He humbled you . . . to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

— Deuteronomy 8:3

During pregnancy, I often experienced quick shifts from feeling indifferent about food to feeling ravenously hungry. The child growing inside me and all of the changes taking place caused me to hunger.

In our Bible reading for today, though, it was God who caused the people to hunger. He brought them into a situation where they didn’t have enough to eat and they needed to depend on him. Only when his people were really hungry could they appreciate that God provided for them.

Sometimes God may allow us to experience a lack of something in order to humble and teach us to grow in faith too. Could it be that when there’s a profound need and a deep hunger, we need to realize that God is not abandoning us but preparing us for something greater, as when a woman is carrying a child?

It’s hard to be in a place of neediness, especially if there’s pain and discomfort involved. And it’s tempting to conclude that whatever isn’t going well should be fixed as soon as possible. But sometimes God leads us into situations to teach us to be utterly dependent on him—to show us that we don’t live on bread alone. God teaches us in order to show us that there’s more to our survival than merely having what we need. We need “every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

God our Father, Help us to hunger for you, and feed us with your holy Word. Amen.