Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4)
During His wilderness experience, Jesus was tempted by the devil three times, and on each occasion Jesus rebuffed Satan by quoting the Scripture. To be sure, there is immense power in the Word of God, for it is the food of the faithful!
Here is something striking to note about today’s verse: Jesus had gone forty days and forty nights without eating any food. Many people throughout the ages have fasted for weeks, but here we see that inasmuch as we can survive without physical sustenance for a time, we simply cannot go without the spiritual sustenance that comes from the mouth of God.
By the Word of the Lord all things were created; God spoke, and the world came into existence. But God’s Word not only created; it continues to keep all things alive. The writer of Hebrews tells us, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word” (Hebrews 1:3). Our bodies, if deprived of food for too long, will eventually die. But our soul, if deprived of the Word of God, begins to die very quickly. I once heard a man say, “If I go a day without reading the Bible, I know it; if I go a couple of days without reading the Word, my wife will know it; if I go several days without the Word of God, everyone around me will know it.”
As one who has trained athletes for decades, I have always stressed that the importance of sound nutrition cannot be overstated if peak performance is to be achieved. The same is true for the child of God. If we are to be live at the peak of our God-given abilities, we must make a steady diet of the Word of God. Our heart’s cry should echo Peter, who said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
The opening verses of John’s gospel tell us that Jesus is the Word of God and that His Word is the eternal life that is promised to us when we cross the Jordan. But we must never forget that Scripture also gives us life in the here and now. God’s Word gives us all we need to be all that God is calling us to be. It is the Word of God that teaches us and trains us to walk in the light, as He is in the Light, and it is the Word of God that rebukes us and corrects us when we stray from God’s path.
How is it with you? Have you been feasting on the food of the faithful? Has the Bible become the light for your everyday walk? All the books in the entire world cannot give you what God’s Book provides. Every book on every shelf in every library is dead. Only the Word of God is living and active and able to do for you what no other written document in the world can do: teach you to walk in the way that God desires for you and make you more like Jesus. So let us prize every word that comes from the mouth of God above all the delicacies the world offers.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 