Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts.

Jeremiah 15:16

Have you ever walked into a home and smelled       something wonderful coming from the kitchen? The smell alone awakens your taste buds and even though you weren’t hungry before you feel famished now. But  if you don’t eat the food you haven’t experienced the satisfaction of a full stomach. Sometimes we treat the word of God like an aroma that appeals to us.

We read a verse or a devotion about a verse, we taste but never really eat enough to benefit us. Just as our bodies need to consume good foods that provide     nourishment our spiritual growth depends on us, “eating” the Word of God. Just as a bad diet can make us over weight and cause health problems what we   feed our minds when it comes to our faith can either   be good for us or bad. While reading a single verse or   a devotion can be good it should never replace a full meal on God’s Word. “Eating the Bible” may sound strange to us, yet God gave us His Word to be our  spiritual food. So though we may read and study God’s Word, if we don’t eat it as food, we’ll be spiritually   hungry and, as a result, weak in our Christian life.

Francis Bacon (1561–1626), one of the leading figures of the English Renaissance, observed that some books are to be tasted, some are to be chewed, and some are  to be thoroughly digested. Jeremiah understood the  Bible is the one book to be devoured. How is your     appetite when it comes to the Word of God?

Your shepherd,

Pastor Mark