Eat This Book (part 1)

David said it best in Psalm 119:11 when he said “I hide your word in my heart so that I will not sin against you.”  If for no other reason, that in and of itself such be motive enough for us to engage in bible reading.  Jeremiah said it a different way.  He said in Jeremiah 15:16 “ When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, LORD God Almighty.”  Lastly, John speaks to us in Revelation 10:9 “So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll.  He said to me, “Take it and eat it.  It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.”  Let’s note the common thread in each of these accounts, the individual ate the word of God.  Whether they did it of their own volition, or they were instructed to do so, the outcome was the same.  Most of us don’t give much thought to eating the word of God.  We read it, perhaps not as much as we should.  We think it about it-sometimes.  We reference it in times of trouble and distress- but eating it? Not so much.  What does it mean to eat the word of God?  Let’s think about food.  Daily we feed ourselves without much thought to the nutrients our bodies require and if the food ingested will adequately feed our bodies.  In addition, we do so all of our lives without fully understanding HOW the body digests food, extracts the nutrients each organ needs, and manages to keep itself in a “functional” balance.  Truly a miracle in itself.  The point is, we don’t dictate to the body how to process the food- it does that on its own.  It uses what it can and discards the rest.  All this without knowledge or input from us- beyond stuffing food in our mouths.  Eating the word of God, it is the same thing.  It is letting the word speak to us and having it’s effect ON us, just like the food we eat.  We can’t pick and choose and consider ourselves honest with God’s word.  We do ourselves a great injustice when we do this.  C.S. Lewis is quoted as saying “ We read either for our purpose, or the purpose of the author.  One is good, the other is terribly bad.  (continued next week) Blessings.

​~Lamar