I don’t know about you, but when I get too hungry, I turn into a real grouch! It starts off with a little rumble in my stomach. After about a half hour of ignoring it, I start to feel a headache coming on and I get a little nauseated. I feel kind of weak as well. If I wait much longer, my thinking really get impaired. I can’t process information as quickly and my brain feels like it’s in a cloud of cotton candy. It’s pretty fuzzy up in there. At times like these, it’s almost too late. If I’m out and have to go to a restaurant, I can’t even make a decision about what I want to eat. My brain has already checked out. All I want to do is chew someones head off. No one should ever let themselves get to that point. I’m not saying to feed the tiger in your belly every time it growls, but allowing your hunger to get out of control and create a hunger monster out of you is not the answer either. We have to pay attention to what our bodies are saying and be sensitive to maintaining healthy balance. That takes discernment and wisdom.In I Kings 17: 8-16, Elijah went to a place called Zarephath of Sidon and did as the Lord told him to by asking a widow with a son to bring him some water and some bread. At that time there was a long and severe drought in the land, so food and water were very scarce. The widow certainly had been effected by the drought and was obviously very poor...not to mention extremely hungry.
She told him that she only had a handful of flour and a little oil that she planned to make some bread with so she and her son could eat it and die! Pretty dire straits, I’d say! But Elijah told her not to be afraid and first go home to make him some bread, then make some bread for herself and her son. He promised that if she did this, the Lord would provide for her and her son until the rain came again. Can you imagine the nerve of this prophet, asking a poor, starving, destitute widow to give him her last bit of water and food first and then believe that God would provide more for her to feed herself and her son? That was quite a request! Knowing how I get when I’m famished and facing situations far less stressful that poverty, starvation, and death, I wonder how I would’ve handled Elijah’s request. I wonder if I could’ve had the same trust and grace she had. Somehow I sort of doubt it. I probably would have come after him with one of those sticks I was collecting for the fire and spouted off some choice words about his man parts being made of steel. I’m sure it wouldn’t have been pretty. 
It’s hard to keep a positive attitude about anything when we’re hungry. We are physically at a disadvantage, our blood sugar is probably low and our mental acuity is usually compromised. That being said, we need to show grace in the times when we do find ourselves hungry and crabby. We need to do our part in the planning beforehand so that doesn’t have to happen, but trust that in those rare times, the Lord will provide the resources and the time that we need to eat regularly and properly so we don’t have to become hunger monsters.
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