Hungry for GodShembull

Set Your Default to Jesus

I believe we’re not ourselves, our true selves, when we settle for less than God’s best. We remain frustrated, angry, self-serving people with insatiable appetites despite all we consume. As we are fed spiritual food and experience intimacy with God, we discover a depth of satisfaction nothing else can touch. 

Nonetheless we often resist obeying God’s commandments, following His guidelines, and practicing the spiritual habits that deeply satisfy. We return instead to old addictions and destructive pleasures hoping to find what we’re looking for and growing frustrated when our empty attempts yield more disappointment, desperation, and discouragement. We go back to what we used to do before we encountered Jesus and invited His Spirit into our lives only to come up short. We look to our past efforts instead of God’s future promises. 

Perhaps there is no better illustration of this phenomenon than when Jesus’ disciples went fishing one night not long after their Master had risen from the dead. (See John 21:1-11.)

I find it interesting but not surprising that after Jesus had been crucified, buried, and resurrected, His disciples resumed doing what they knew best: fishing. There was only one problem—they were no longer who they used to be! Instead of experiencing the fullness of the risen Savior, the excitement of being new creatures in Christ, they reverted to their default settings. 

We all have default settings, even if that’s not the term we use. On your smartphone, laptop, and the computer in your vehicle, as well as many appliances and systems in your home, you have the original programmed operational sets known as default settings. If a malicious virus attacks or something in a system goes wrong, you can always reset the device to the default settings. They’re basic, familiar, and have been around since the system was created. 

The disciples went back to doing what they were doing before they met Jesus. They returned to their default settings. And what were the results? They caught nothing! 

They experienced what happens when you go back to your old lifestyle, back to how you lived prior to knowing Christ: you catch nothing. Why? It’s very simple: there’s nothing back there!

There’s nothing of any significant value when you go back to what you were doing before you met Jesus. There’s nothing in your past behavior, there’s nothing in that previous relationship, there’s nothing at your former job. There’s nothing in the old way of thinking.

If God took you out, why would you want to go back?

If you want your hunger to help you thrive in the power of the living God, then it’s time to change your default setting to Jesus! Don’t go back to the sinful routines and old messages in your mind. Don’t return to a diet of worldly pleasures and empty possessions. Change your default settings!

The Bible warns us clearly, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past” (Isa. 43:18). 

When you make a final determination that you will never look back, think back, or speak back, then God’s glorious future for you opens up! Your hunger is filled with joy, peace, hope, purpose, and unconditional love. 

If you want to thrive at the Lord’s table of bounty, then make this declaration: I am not going back. Say it out loud and mean it: I am not going back to my default settings. But instead, I will continue to pursue God with all my heart.