Charles Stanley (August-23-2024) Daily Devotional: Fed With Spiritual Food.
Do you have a well-balanced diet of God's Word?
Jeremiah 15:16 - Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; For I have been called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.
Most children go through a picky eating phase. Parents resist this, knowing that children need variety in their diet. A bag of candy may have the same calorie count as a baked potato, but the candy doesn’t provide the same nutrition.
The same is true for the Bible, which Jeremiah describes as spiritual food. Just as we need physical food to stay alive, we need spiritual food to sustain us. And just as we need a variety of foods, we need to read and listen to the whole counsel of Scripture.
Jeremiah prophesied to a rebellious Israel, and he found strength and sustenance in God’s words. But the fact that verse 16 says they “became” a joy suggests they might not have been sweet at first. The prophet may have needed to train his spiritual taste, and so do we.
Some Bible verses, after all, sound sweet. Psalm 23 begins with “The Lord is my shepherd, I will not be in need” (Psalm 23:1 - The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.). But others, like “Happy is the person whom God disciplines” (Job 5:17 - Behold, how happy is the man whom God reproves, So do not despise the discipline of the Almighty), might be a little less appealing. And what about “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23 - And He was saying to them all, ``If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me)?
Do you eat only the sweet, simple parts of the Bible? Or do you seek spiritual nourishment in the complexity of the whole Word, so that you become strong in the faith?
