This weekend seems to be the one-stop destination for every snack-fanatic. The Super Bowl matches up the best two NFL teams in an end-of-the-year showdown and simultaneously brings the best and most delicious grub to the table. There is so much that is made available to the consumer! Companies actually introduce brand new tasty treats simply for this big event! And while many Super Bowl party spreads include some homemade delectables, it should be noted that this wonderful fare is rarely one that anyone should live on for any significant length of time. This type of diet is costly – both on the bank account and on the body.
Similarly, with all that is available to us in the form of spiritual fast food – books, brochures, videos, YouTube clips, Twitter quips, online sermons, etc. – we are offered a veritable feast. Easily accessible and in bite-size morsels, each can easily become a substitute for a well-rounded spiritual meal. Moreover, it is easy to become comfortable, complacent, even bored in our relationship with God when we pass up milk (1 Pet 2:2), meat (Heb 5:14), and bread (Deut 8:3). We forget that our spiritual growth is not based on pre-packaged, regurgitated snack food, but the meal that God makes available to us daily in the pages of His Word. It has been said, “God meant for the Bible to be bread for our daily use, not just cake for special occasions.”
Similar to the Jewish returnees, who needed to be re-awakened to their God-given calling to rebuild the Temple (Ezra 5:1-2), we too can fall into seasons of complacency and neglect. The antidote is the same for you and me as it was for God’s people ca. 2,500 years ago. The Word of God spoken, accepted, and applied, will lead to a life transformed and ready for action, because the Scriptures bear witness about Christ (Jn 5:59; Lk 24:27, 44-45). A.W. Tozer put it this way:
The Word of God well understood and religiously obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection. And we must not select a few favorite passages to the exclusion of others. Nothing less than the whole Bible can make a whole Christian.
So, how do we change our diet? For starters, find a place where you can read God’s Word and hear it speak to you daily and without distractions. Second, weave the Text into your routine as you make it a topic of conversation with your family, friends, and D-Group members. And lastly, pray that God would help you meditate and digest His Word so that its life-giving and life-transforming content would move in every part of your being, causing you to know Him and make Him known.
At the heart of a life changed, is the Word that gets to the heart.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (ESV) – “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”