I’m becoming increasingly convinced Satan’s greatest strategy against Christians is to get us to become sleepy and distracted. I see it in my own heart and life. I don’t ever miss a day of going on social media but yet it is such a struggle to remain faithful reading my Bible on a consistent basis. I don’t ever question my need of water and food each day for my physical health, so why do I act like I don’t need  a daily intake of God’s Word for my spiritual health?

Just like eating fruit and veggies once a week won’t nourish us physically, taking in Bible truth once a week won’t nourish us spiritually.

Ephesians tells us to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. How do we do this? We are instructed to put on the whole armor of God so that we will have the ability to stand firm in the midst of all Satan’s schemes. As the sword is the soldier’s weapon, the Word of God is our weapon in our struggles against Satan’s schemes. The Bible will never return void as we consume it to fend off the sin, doubt and discouragement that tries to destroy us.

One of my biggest struggles in life is my desire to eat according to my current feelings. Most of the time I feel like eating chips rather than a salad even though I know the salad will have far better results long term. I need to learn to trust that it is the repeated habit of eating nourishing food that will produce physical strength regardless of my moment to moment feelings.

In the same but more important way, I need to learn to trust that even when I don’t feel it, my repeated times of reading my Bible is producing in me a deeper spiritual strength. As I was reminded of by a friend recently, no one gets healthy and strong from one salad. It is a daily, consistent process. We can be sure that time spent in the Word of God will never be wasted. It is the spiritual bread by which we live. 

I’m learning of my need to be increasingly convinced of my absolute need of God’s Word to saturate my mind and heart each day. That is where change begins. I have learned that a lack of faith in the sufficiency and necessity of Scripture is often the reason I neglect the Bible. 

We are living in a day when there are so many ways we can intake the Bible and what a blessing that is! God has used many sermons, podcasts, Bible  studies, books, ect. to spur me on in my walk with God. The key is to find what works for you in different seasons of life. Sometimes I read large portions of scripture and other times I just read a few verses that I can dwell on during the day. There have been times too when listening to Biblically-rich music is a deep encouragement to my heart especially on hard days.

The Bible will always be the pure food we need. Everything else is like vitamins- they contribute to good health but they can never replace the value of pure fruits/vegetables. By God’s grace, may our eyes always behold the beautiful things in God’s Word for it is the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. May the Lord enable us to be fully depended on it for we can do nothing of eternal significance apart from it. Satan will always be trying to distract us with lesser things but the more we taste and see the goodness of God and His Word, the more we will hunger for it!