When we think about food, we understand it’s best to only eat until we are full. Overeating will usually cause stomach upset or other unpleasant issues we’ll have to deal with later. And in truth, a single person isn't usually interested in eating an entire six-servings of pasta, six-servings of vegetable and six-servings of meat all at one time. We each take a single (sometimes double) portion of what we feel our stomachs can hold, and eat until we are finished.
Eating until we are full, with a single serving at a time, (as long as it's healthy food!) is a diet that can keep us healthy. The same is true for our spiritual health. We need to daily reach for the ‘food’ we find for our souls. When God fed the Israelites in the Wilderness, he sent them Manna. They couldn’t take extra portions, only what each person needed. Any extra would rot!
What intrigued me, is the idea that God places commands throughout his Word. They aren’t found in one single place. He scatters lessons to be learned all over the place, if we look for them. But again, they aren’t localized to one area! His Word is filled with promises, but again not on a single page, but all the way through his messages.
This means we get small doses at a time. If we prayerfully read his Word, and search the scripture for what he wants us to know on any given day, he will show us. The Holy Spirit was promised for this reason; to teach us and give us understanding! We don’t have to be a professor of Biblical knowledge to understand the Bible! But we do have to be diligent students who love the Lord!
I heard the story about a little girl who came home after her first day of school. When asked what she learned that day, her reply was, “Apparently not enough. I have to come back tomorrow, the next day, and the next day after that!” She couldn’t have known, there was no way she could learn everything she needed to learn in a single day! Learning comes in small pieces, all through our lives.
But we won’t learn if we don’t attempt. When we are ill and go to the doctor, he often prescribes some kind of medicine. There are directions on the container the medicine comes in and needs to be followed carefully. But they are useless if we don’t take them! The same is true of God’s Word! It is filled with medicine for our souls, our lives, our emotional health, relationships, recovery, and overall health. But if we don’t open those covers, and read the directions, and then follow the leading, we’ve not opened ourselves to healing!
I encourage you over the next week to dig deep into God’s Word to find what he wants you to know. Revel in his reassurances of peace and love. Acquire an understanding of his commands and desirers for your life. Learn the promises he’s given his children and any ‘contingencies’ associated with them. Be fed daily, in small doses from the Word given by the Great Creator. If you are diligent, you won’t be disappointed.
photo credit: https://www.sweetlife.com.au/sugar-free-diet/food-list/
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