As I was praying today, I realized that I often read my Bible like one of those instruction manuals you get when buying a new lawnmower. Too often read my Bible to learn how to forgive or praise God or repent for a sin. God’s Word tells us what to do, and I thank God for that, but the point of God’s Word is to feed us.
If we do a Bible study on feeding on God’s Word, we will find that it’s a “thing.” God wants us to consume His Word as food that changes us. We’ve trained our minds to focus on the pleasure we get from eating, but we know that what we eat changes our bodies. And if we stop eating, we will starve. We should have this mindset about the Bible, God’s Word.
“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
Romans 10:17
I Won’t Become a Lawnmower
Faith is what we feed. And what we eat is “the word of Christ.” I won’t become a lawnmower if I read and study my new mower’s user manual. User manuals teach us, but they don’t make us. Jesus wants to make us, to make you, into a person that carries faith in God into everything you do and say. Jesus is the Father’s beloved Son. Out of Jesus’ unfathomable love, he desires us to continually become more like Him, so the Father is pleased with us.
Our faith will be weak if we skip our meals. Feeding on the word of Christ is something we need to become skilled at doing. When we eat a hamburger or a fresh tomato, we take time to chew our food. We instinctively know that chewing enables us to savor our food and prepares the food to be digested. The same is true with God’s food.
Reading the “Verse of the Day” is good, but we shouldn’t just gulp it down. We should chew it and store it in our memory. Then, we should bring it back throughout our day and chew on it. If we do this, God’s word feeds our faith, changing us.
The Bible is the best instruction manual ever created, but it is so much more. It is our pantry, our refrigerator, our lunchbox. To be who Jesus desires us to be, we need to eat right. Let’s practice savoring God’s word.
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