The Bible as Food?

George Muller, the well-known Christian who lived a life of poverty and with God's help built a huge orphanage in England, has an interesting quote regarding the Bible. He said, "It is as plain to me as anything, that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is to obtain food for his inner man. As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time, except we take food, and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with the inner man. We should take food for that, as every one must allow."

He goes on to specify what that food is: "Now what is the food for the inner man: not prayer, but the Word of God: and here again not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts."

This is quite a picture is it not? And yet it is not that foreign to the Scriptures themselves: "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life." (John 6:63). Our spiritual sustenance as Christians depends on these words in the Scriptures. It also says, "Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day." (Psalm 119:97). They are to be read, remembered, meditated on, and applied. We eat multiple times a day to stay nourished, so why should we think this is any different? We should be memorizing Scriptures that are especially applicable to our life, and reading through the Bible regularly in a disciplined and intentional manner, making sure we are not just hearers (or mere readers) but doers of the Word. This does not make personal Bible reading a substitute for bringing ourselves under the preaching of God's Word, since (as a previous blog entry alluded to) shepherds have a charge by Christ to, "Feed my sheep." (John 21:17). But it must be a big part of one's regular diet so that he may not be looking to his flesh to be fed, which the verse above said is "of no avail" (or as the NASB version says, "the flesh profits nothing"). So let me ask you, are you regularly feeding on God's Word?

Photo from: http://lbcpastor.wordpress.com/2007/11/15/our-view-of-thanksgiving/