April 27 I Monday

1 Kings 1-2

Luke 19:28-48

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”  —Galatians 5:22-23

When we want to become physically fit, we cannot focus only on exercising—we also need to be mindful of our eating habits. If we out-eat the amount of calories we burn when we exercise, we will inevitably gain weight and not get the results that we want. Paul reveals this same principle, as he points the starting place for our spiritual health is being nourished by the truth of the faith and good teachings.

God’s Word is the starting place of our spiritual disciplines because there is authority in His Word. Scripture is God’s revealed truth––God’s love letter––and we need to be students of His Word. In Richard Foster’s Celebration of Disciplines, he talks about the importance of studying, meditating and immersing ourselves in God’s Word for transformation.

To see real change, we must commit to eating healthy; it is not a diet but a lifestyle. We have to be careful of the times when we allow “spiritual junk food.” Paul talks about this in 1 Timothy 4:7: “Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales…” In our day and age, we may not be captivated by godless myths or old wives’ tales but these could be equivalent to our binging on Netflix and social media. If we are consumed by the ways of this world, we are eating “junk food”.

In Matthew 4, when Jesus was tempted by the devil in the desert, Jesus retorted after one of the temptations by quoting God’s Word. “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4). Jesus quoted Scripture all the time in the Gospels. Even though Jesus was fully God, He was also fully man. Jesus did not come out of Mary’s womb with all the biblical data downloaded into His system. He had to learn and study Scripture. The Gospel of Luke tells, “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man” (Luke 2:52).

Jesus’s constant quoting of God’s Word throughout the New Testament indicates that the very line He advocated during the temptation is true: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Like Jesus, we are to meditate and spend time filling our minds with God’s Word. Psalm 1:1-2 tells us, “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked…but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on His law day and night.” May we nourish ourselves spiritually with healthy food by spending time learning, studying and meditating on God’s Word.

Prayer: Precious Lord, thank You for Your Word––Your love letter. May I delight in Your Word and desire to spend time daily learning, studying and meditating on it. Amen!