In Part 1, I wrote that hungry years can be for our long-term good. The first lesson is that they teach us to be disciplined and prioritize in our finances.
Here are two more lessons.
Second, hungry years free us for a simpler life.
Here’s a thought experiment. Would you be the same person you are now if you have unlimited funds?
Hungry years can actually save us from accumulating stuff which will then demand much time, expense and effort to maintain. For example, we are prevented from owning and driving a fancy car only to spend a lot to keep it in good running condition. Then, when we finally get back on our feet, we may realize we can live without that fancy car after all.
Hungry years can wean us away from greed, envy or extravagance. They can be a crucible where contentment, delayed gratification and financial prudence are forged deeply into our character. We stop focusing on things and start cherishing relationships.
Third, hungry years remind us of God’s faithful provision.
A Czech proverb goes: “The God who gives us teeth will also give us bread.”
God may cause us to hunger, but He will not allow us to die of hunger. Indeed, He had brought the Israelites to utterly depend on Him during their 40 years of wandering in the desert.
God is not a sadist who dangles a bone before a chained dog, never letting the dog get the bone. Rather, God responded to Israel’s hunger by giving them manna, day after unfailing day.
Hungry years are just as valuable as the satisfied years. In due time, God ended the Israelite’s wandering and brought them to the Promised Land, flowing with milk and honey.
If God wills, someday He will usher us into the “Promised Land” He has in store for us. We will no longer wrestle with tight budgets and gnawing need.
But until then, there are treasures to be gathered, lessons to be learned. Trusting in God’s matchless goodness, we embrace the hungry years as the necessary shadow for what promises to be a magnificent portrait.
In the meantime, why not cling to One who can satisfy our deepest needs?
Do you know that Jesus’s feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle that is recorded in all four Gospels? The Lord saw a harassed, hungry crowd and had compassion on them. Someone brought him five loaves of bread and two fish, which He then multiplied to feed the 5,000 men, along with an unspecified number of women and children.
The accounts in Matthew, Mark and Luke say that “They all ate and were satisfied” while John’s narrative adds that the people received bread “as much as they wanted.” All four accounts conclude that disciples had gathered 12 basketfuls of leftovers.
In your hungry years, put your trust in Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. You’ll never know what He will multiply. And you will find satisfaction for your soul.
Now that Valentine’s Day is upon us again, here are some thoughts on how to enjoy great relationships.
Once upon a time, there were two married men. One chose to have an affair that lasted for months. His marriage is now in shambles. Meantime, the other man enjoys a happy marriage. He and his wife have three adorable kids.
What made the difference? The first man went with the wrong crowd whose motto is, “Do what pleases you. After all, everyone is doing it.” The second man surrounded himself with wise mentors who are successful in marriage.
This leads us to the first principle: Examine your sources of wisdom. Whom you hang around with and get advice from will spell the difference between a good life and a wasted life.
The second principle is: Choose your relationships wisely. If you are single, be very careful about choosing whom you will marry. Those who are already married soon realize that their spouses play a big factor in their happiness.
Here comes my third principle: The smartest relationship you must choose is the one between you and God. Why? If you have a great relationship with God, you can have great relationships with people, including your boy/girl friend or spouse.
Many people think that God is some Cosmic Killjoy or Distant Father. But David discovered that in God’s presence, there is fullness of joy. In fact, he invites us, “Taste and know that the Lord is good” (Psalm 16:11, 34:8).
Do you realize how liberating this is? It means that you no longer have to expect or even demand that your boy/girl friend or your spouse to make you happy. Rather, you enjoy happiness in God and from there, you can make your special someone happy.
Wait. It gets better. The fourth principle is: choose someone who also makes his or her personal relationship with God a priority.
Many think that a love relationship is a 50%-50% deal. The man gives 50% to make the girl happy, and vice versa. That way, both will be happy 100%.
But inevitably, the man falls short and gives far less than 50%. The girl is disappointed. Fights ensue and the relationship breaks up.
But if the man draws his happiness from God and gives 100% to make the girl happy, and the girl does likewise, the relationship is humming at 200% joy.
Remember: to a have a great relationship with people, each of us must first have a great relationship with God. Then marry someone who also has a great relationship with God. The resulting bliss will be but a foretaste of heaven!
Check out my books about love and marriage, available in Shopee and Lazada
How Do I Know the One?
The Honeymoon Never Ends
How to Mend a Broken Heart
Look for them also at National Book Store, Philippine Christian Book Store, OMF Literature bookstore and the Church Strengthening Ministry bookstore.
There was a time when I was laid off. While later I found a new job, I had to take a 50% pay cut. My finances were almost hand-to-mouth, without much room for savings.
Many of us go through such times of tightness and inflexibility. We feel trapped and constrained, then frustrated, depressed or angry.
I call this period the hungry years.
If we are not careful, we would feel that God is holding out on us. “I thought He is a good God. Then why is He giving us a raw deal? Perhaps He is not as loving as He is said to be.”
I was accusing God of being stingy, like a billionaire who hands me a bowl of bland porridge when he could have treated me to a sumptuous buffet.
But one day I came across a line that changed my thinking. Moses told this to the people of Israel after wandering through the desert for forty years: “[God] humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna…” (Deuteronomy 8:3).
Wait a minute. God causing you to hunger?
I thought that when God blesses us, we are filled, happy or even carefree.
But the more I thought about this sentence, the more I realized that God’s blessings does not always mean that He makes us comfortable.
Put differently, suffering does not necessarily mean that one has lost God’s favor. In fact, there are blessings that God can only give us through hunger. We have to accept that God uses both the pleasant and the unpleasant, the famine as well as the feast, in a divinely ordained blend.
In what way can going through “hungry years” – times when our finances are tight and we wonder if we will ever prosper – serve to our benefit?
First, hungry years teach us to be disciplined and to prioritize.
When I had a hefty salary, I would give little thought of buying this or that. But with a tight budget, I had to focus on paying the essentials and let go of my private luxuries.
I was learning (but not always successful!) the virtue of delayed gratification. In some cases, when I put off buying something, in due time I wondered why I ever hankered for that item in the first place.
More importantly, when God restored my former salary level, I resolved to continue with my thrifty lifestyle and pour the surplus cash into savings or investments.
I will share the other two insights next week. Meantime, are you hungry for something deeper? Some love and acceptance? Some purpose in life?
Listen to Jesus’s invitation: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry…” (John 6:35). Come to Jesus. Entrust yourself to Him. Make Him Lord and Savior of your life. He will fill the innermost hunger in your heart.
He has never made a promise He can’t keep.
February 14, 2026
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