What do you say after eating a wonderful meal?

Imagine that you have just shared good fellowship and excellent food. You have eaten to contentment; you are full, satisfied but not bloated. What do you say?

You could say, “Wow, that was great.” Or, “Oh, what a wonderful meal!” Or, “My stomach feels just right.” But none of those expressions really captures the moment.

In this case, knowing other languages helps. In Swahili, one word captures all these ideas:  “Nimeshiba” means “I’m content, satisfied, full but not bloated, relaxed, happy, and delighted.”

Think of those ideas when looking at John 4:34.  Jesus has traveled a long distance. His disciples go to town to buy food while their master waits at the well. While they are away, Jesus speaks the Gospel to a Samaritan woman. The disciples then return with food – and yet Jesus doesn’t eat. When they urge Him to eat, He replies, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” That is, Jesus gained sustenance from submissive obedience. He delighted to do whatever His Father had sent Him to do. He was content, satisfied, relaxed, and happy when He had accomplished the tasks the Father gave Him. Though He had not eaten any physical food, He could say to His disciples, “Nimeshiba.”

Do I have that same delight in submissive obedience to the Lord? Do I hunger to accomplish the work He has given me? Am I content when I have fulfilled His purposes for me – even if many of my personal desires and needs seem to remain unfulfilled? Even if the work that I personally wanted to accomplish remains incomplete? Is my food to do His will?

One barrier to my doing His will is that I am pulled different directions. As I live in this world, I am influenced by my family, my culture, my profession, my schooling, by radio, by television, by the internet  – all these influences have an impact on my understanding of what I should do and where satisfaction lies. If I am to walk in God’s ways in the midst of these influences, I must know His ways and see His paths! So the first step in being satisfied to accomplish His work must be to pray with the psalmist, “Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths” (Psalm 25:4). We need Him to cut through the fog of this world – the fog of wrong desires, the fog of unbelief, the fog of past wounds and sorrows, the fog of anti-biblical influences. We need Him to shine brightly through His revelation in His Word, so that we can know His ways and see His path.

Having seen His path, the issue then becomes: In what do I delight? How do I get sustenance? Is my food to do the will of the One who called me out of darkness into His marvelous light? Or is my food to ignore the seemingly difficult path God has laid out for me, and to take the easier, more attractive path that seems to offer plenty of nourishment, plenty of delights, plenty of satisfactions?

Please join me in this New Year in praying to our Father, “Lord God, teach me your paths – and make walking on your paths my delight, my satisfaction. Enable me by your grace to say, ‘Nimeshiba’ when I have submitted in obedience to you. Make me like Jesus – so that my food is to do Your will.”