Jesus was being accosted by the Tempter - Satan himself - when he cited [Psalm 63](in Matthew 4:4). Fittingly, Jesus hadn't eaten for forty days. No doubt, food was his primary need. But in the midst of near starvation, he said that there was something more important than food: to be strengthened by the Spirit of God as he rested on the very words of the Father. Spiritual food can seem unsatisfying at first, but have you ever had someone say to you, "I love you?" Wouldn't you gladly pass on a buffet in order to hear such words? In Jesus' case this spiritual food was more important than physical life itself. Now we begin to understand how God remains faithful to his promises even when his people go hungry. The physical food points to something better.
The apostle Paul often went hungry but he saw absolutely no contradiction between that and God's generous care for this truest needs. Paul knew that, no matter how well fed, the physical body was inevitably going to die. But a fed spirit is satisfied for this life and the life to come. To make it more personal, if Paul had God, what else did he really need?
[by Edward T. Welch in Heart of the Matter]
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