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From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham

 

Dear Rev. Graham: Our culture has become indifferent to famines that take place around the world. We’re barraged with advertisements and fund-raising appeals to help feed the world. While many give to this great need, most are complacent. Is this what it means when the Bible talks about a time when there will be a famine of the Word of God? – F.T.

 

Dear F.T.: No one really knows how many people die of starvation each year. Underdeveloped countries keep irregular and often unreliable statistics, particularly concerning deaths of infants and children. Such deaths are not always reported by family members. Furthermore, there is a sociological and psychological component to reports on famine and disease. Bureaucrats and officials of many small governments simply do not report such disasters for fear that news of widespread deaths will damage business, trade, tourism, confidence, and other factors. In reality, the death toll from such crises as famine, pestilence, disease, and epidemics of any kind is almost always greater than the numbers reported; and millions of children go to bed hungry every night.

The Bible does teach that there will be a famine of the Word of God in the last days. “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Sovereign Lord, ‘when I will send a famine through the land – not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord’” (Amos 8:11, NIV). Spiritual starvation leads to spiritual death.

We allow the cares of this world to choke out the greater need for feasting on God’s Word. We are to pray that we would hunger and thirst to be filled by the Word of God; for there is no greater resource that equips and nourishes our souls.

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(This column is based on the words and writings of the late Rev. Billy Graham.)