I am still struggling to understand and explain what it means to live by the words of God.
Sometimes we call this application. That term used to seem okay to me but no longer. It denotes exactly what we struggle with – control. I will take this truth and apply it to my life.
Not enough bowing down going on; not enough submission to the grandeur of God.
We must give up control, give up the attitude that I can take truth and fix my life and make it better.
God’s words are so much more than that. They are life.
(Deuteronomy 8:3 MSG) He put you through hard times. He made you go hungry. Then he fed you with manna, something neither you nor your parents knew anything about, so you would learn that men and women don’t live by bread only; we live by every word that comes from GOD’s mouth.
Let’s use the model God has given us. We don’t take a sandwich or a bowl of soup and say, “Okay, I am now going to apply this food to my life.”
No, we eat it.
So is it so far reaching to believe that God wants us to figure out how to eat his words?
What we have come up with is the term “feeding on God’s word” which means studying the Bible or listening to a message being preached. Where do we get that? The only thing we are feeding is our intellect thus our pride. Our biblical idea of “feeding on the Word of God” is not biblical at all.
This is like studying the recipe for a meal but not eating it. We drool over the recipe and the ingredients but never taste the food.
We are back to control. I will study, figure it out and do with it as I choose.
No bowing low before God going on.
Why not try to set ourselves in a more biblical direction where we are bowing before God and receiving his words for life-changing nourishment?
How about this? “Here, eat this. Accept these words and see how they work themselves out in our lives.”
Chew on this all day tomorrow: Never pay back insult for insult. Instead bless the person who insulted you. This is what is on your spiritual menu.
(1 Peter 3:9 NCV) Do not do wrong to repay a wrong, and do not insult to repay an insult. But repay with a blessing, because you yourselves were called to do this so that you might receive a blessing.
Eat the words and taste God.
