“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.” Jer.15-16
What are we going to eat today? Will we feast on the world, its pleasures, its “must haves”, its constant influx of toys and shiny distractions? Will we feast on the highway of thoughts that travel through our minds, carrying us off to places we should not to go? Led by our ravenous emotional appetite, will we chase and eat whatever moves, searching under every rock and on top of every mountain to satisfy its relentless demands? Will we, like slaves, tormented by the harsh whip of man, run in every direction in order to please our thankless master, never stopping to eat, fading away? Will we sit before a mindless screen and let it feed us minute after minute, hour after hour, until in a stupor of junk food and poison we fall lifelessly onto our beds? Or will we, like Jeremiah, eat the words of life that each of us in this country have the great blessing to have in our possession?
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” (John 6:35) If we believe His words, everything else will begin to pale in comparison. As we eat our daily bread of the life-giving Saviour, our desire for other foods will start to diminish. Psalm 2:1-5 says, “My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.” As this discernment grows in us we will taste the poison laced in all these other things, and increasingly shut our mouths to them.
The more we eat of Him, the more our cry will be, “O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water.” (Ps. 63:1) “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” These words of 1 Corinthians 2:14 remind us that without Christ, we are not even aware of this hunger. Without Christ we are anorexic, breathing our last, all the while thinking we are well fed and healthy.
In a time and place where there are bibles and bible apps, and audio bibles all around us, like an endless feast of life-giving delicacies; we must remember that His Word has more often than not been a blessing that we have trampled underfoot, by sheer neglect we have despised it. Let us be warned by the words of Amos, “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the LORD.”
So, let us awaken to our real hunger; let us cut off the supply of poison by following the words of Jeremiah while the food is still abundant. We must be watchful and sober-minded, seeing to it that no one takes us captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ (Col.2:8). Like Timothy, we must be acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. (2 Tim. 3:15)
So today let us cry out to our Lord, and ask forgiveness for our neglect. Let us not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to us, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” (John 6:27)
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