I think everybody who goes to church has probably heard the expression, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God!”
That, of course, is a quotation from Jesus in Matthew 4:4 when He was tempted in the wilderness by the evil one to turn stones into bread. He was, of course, quoting the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 8:3.
Now, that is a basic principle with which I suppose all churchgoers would totally agree. And it’s obvious that there is a physical side to it, and we need physical food! We cannot keep ourselves physically fit without physical nourishment.
But there is a spiritual side also to this idea. We recognize we need spiritual food, and we would not try to keep ourselves spiritually fit without spiritual food, would we?
Well, there’s the problem! Because while we do agree with the idea that man cannot live by bread alone, there is a tendency to say, “Man can’t live by bread alone, but I’m sure going to try!”
Because if we were to look at our lives honestly, we would have to say we are far more concerned about physical nutrition than spiritual nutrition. We pay far more attention to our physical diet than our spiritual diet, and we are often much more disciplined about our physical input than our spiritual input.
We need to be very much aware of the fact that if we are going to be spiritually healthy, we must have spiritual nutrition!
That’s precisely why Paul writes in Colossians 3:16, “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another…”
Now, we recognize that we live busy lives. We recognize that a lot people don’t like reading! We recognize that our society is more oriented toward images than words.
Unfortunately, all these things tend to militate against people taking time for the Word of God.
However, Scripture is quite straightforward that if we are too busy for the Word of God we are too busy, period. If we have time to do all kinds of other things and do not make a priority of our spiritual diet, something else has got to go because we are becoming spiritually malnourished.
So make time for the Word, even just ten minutes a day. Appreciate the significance of its teachings. Make it a priority to feast on it. It’s good for your spiritual health!
We’d love to encourage you more by sending you Stuart’s book, Getting into God, to build you up and encourage you to press on in your relationship with the Lord.
This resource is our thanks for your gift below, which will be DOUBLED up to $90,000 to help Telling the Truth finish the financial year strong, ready to help more people experience Life in Christ. Request your copy today!