Eating God's Word

As Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, he countered Satan's first temptation with one of the most important teachings a Christian will ever encounter- "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'" (Mat 4:4 and Luke 4:4, quoting Deut 8:3)

This teaching de-emphasizes the importance of eating to emphasize the importance of devotion to God. But I think we can also learn a practical lesson about devotion to God from eating.

When you eat, I think it is pretty reasonable to say that you should always do the following things:

1. Pick up the fork/spoon and put the food in your mouth (because leaving it in your plate won't help).
2. Chew and swallow (don't spit it out).
3. Repeat.
4. Make sure that your plate is full of food that is not just good to you, but good for you.
5. Enjoy!

Similarly, I think it is safe to say that we should do the following with God's word:

1. Read it (leaving it on a table all day will not be useful).
2. Understand and obey (don't just quickly gloss over everything or even worse, reject it by disobeying).
3. Repeat (after all, once isn't enough for eating, right?).
4. Don't pick and choose ("every word" means "every word," not just the words we like).
5. Appreciate God's word!

I think one of the most difficult things for a child to learn is to enjoy food- not the sweet stuff like desserts, but the stuff that you really need. There's something about certain foods that just disagrees with you (I always hated peas as a kid). But at some point, you've got to grow up and learn to enjoy what is good for you. That applies to God's word just as strongly. We will sometimes have to develop an appreciation for certain portions of God's word that we might not appreciate at first. It might be that some things just don't seem worth taking in very often, if at all. The price is giving up on your basic, child-like (we all start as spiritual babies) instincts. The prize is life. We live on God's every word.