Are You Eating Right?

Some have approached every failure in their walk with God as an indication they aren’t trying hard enough. They’re convinced more dedication and more consecration are the keys to success. They work hard to exert more effort.

Willpower and hard work are not enough. In most cases, the answer for them is growing up and maturing in the things of God.

The strength that comes through feeding on God’s Word will put you over when times get tough.

There’s no substitute for a healthy diet of God’s Word in your life. Food is fuel, and you need fuel to accomplish any task. 

If you’ve chosen Christ and to live for Him, that choice was an act of your will. You are a child of God and have a relationship with Him. You’ve begun a spiritual journey that will end one day in Heaven. If you want to run the race successfully and finish your course, you need more than willpower to finish strong.

God’s Word is the fuel you need to finish your course. Many Christians today are undernourished. There’s definitely a Word deficiency.

Many times we try to correct our failures only with willpower. We rededicate and re-consecrate over and over because we didn’t do what we determined to do the first time. Willpower alone is not enough to live a successful Christian life. Good motives, salvation and true love for God are not enough by themselves to ensure success.

It’s the man who meditates in the Word day and night who will prosper.

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” —Joshua 1:8

You need “Word power” to fuel your “willpower.”

Some Christians are frustrated and discouraged because they consistently fail to live up to their commitments to the Lord. The secret to God’s method of success is to back up your godly decisions with a healthy diet of God’s Word.

“But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.” —Psalm 1:2-3

Nothing can take the place of food or fuel—not even prayer.

Some well-meaning believers have said, “I don’t read the Bible much. I’m a prayer. I spend all my time praying, so I don’t have time to read the Bible.” That’s like saying, “I don’t have time to eat. I’m a breather. I breathe all the time, so I’ll let someone else do the eating.”

We’re told to pray without ceasing. So in a sense, prayer is like breathing. You have to breathe to live, but you also have to eat. The Bible teaches us to do both. Prayer is important, but it doesn’t take the place of feeding on God’s Word.

Could we have seen so many fail, quit or fall into temptation because they’re malnourished and underfed?

The number one reason people don’t grow in God is a lack of good teaching from the Word. They aren’t “eating” properly, and consequently, they’re weak and malnourished. This leads to failure and guilt.  We must develop a hunger for God’s Word and “eat” it regularly.

Most people don’t need to be more convinced that wrong is wrong. They need the fuel to accomplish what they know is right. The Word provides power to do what you’ve already chosen to do.

Psalm 119:11 says, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.”

One Christian writer said, “Some Christians feed their bodies three hot meals a day and feed their spirits two cold snacks a week and wonder why they’re weak in faith.”

Develop an appetite for the Word by feeding on it and making it a priority. You may not look forward to reading God’s Word or even enjoy it. I’ve had people tell me they don’t like reading the Bible because they can’t understand it. Just remember, it wasn’t written to entertain your mind like a novel. It’s food for your spirit and spiritually discerned. But just like food, you can develop an appetite for it.

A close relative told me he started out every day with a cup of coffee and a cigarette. He said that if he came to the breakfast table and on one side was coffee and a cigarette and on the other side was a big breakfast with bacon and eggs, fresh fruit, biscuits and gravy and all the trimmings and he had to choose between them, he would choose coffee and the cigarette every time.

His statement surprised me. Obviously he wasn’t born smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee. At one time in his life, he probably would’ve chosen the breakfast. So what happened? He fed on cigarettes and coffee until he wanted them more than food.

You hunger today for what you fed on yesterday.

If he developed an appetite for coffee and cigarettes by consuming them every day, we can surely develop a hunger for God’s Word the same way!

Some people eat healthy and don’t want to put anything in their bodies that isn’t nutritious. They developed a taste for healthy food by feeding on it. You can do the same with God’s Word. Begin today reading and meditating on God’s Word.

As you continue, your tastes will change, and you’ll look forward to your devotional time. This hunger will grow stronger until you develop a dependence on the Word. It’s far better than addictions to natural stimulants and will do far more for your quality of life than eating health foods.

As your hunger for His Word increases, you’ll read the Bible out of pure desire. You won’t want to live without it. It will change from a religious duty to one of the great joys of life.

Jeremiah 15:16 says:

“Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart….”

Feeding on God’s Word as faithfully as we eat natural food would solve a multitude of problems in the church today. It’s the difference between success and failure.

Get in the Word, and get the Word in you!

 

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