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Food that is Life-Giving and Life-Sustaining

In my previous post, I wrote about how the Lord promised to give strength to Israel to go in and conquer the land.  But the strength came from an unusual source, it came as they obeyed the words of the Lord:  “Soon you will cross the Jordan River, and if you obey the laws and teachings I'm giving you today, you will be strong enough to conquer the land.”  (Deut 11:8)

I also wrote that we are not part of those to whom that strength was given in order to go in and conquer the land.  Nonetheless, it is important to obey God’s word.  We can see that from the opposite, that is when we disobey, our strength can be dried up:  “For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up.”  (Ps 32:4)

Normally, in order for our bodies to function properly and effectively, we need fuel and that fuel is food.  And without the fuel, we would have no strength. Yet there is a food that is necessary, not just for strength, but for life:  “And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”  (Deut 8:3)

I don’t normally use quotes from other sources in my posts but I thought this quote from Got Questions (website) says it so much better than I ever could:

“It is not by bread alone that we live, but by everything that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord—that is, anything and everything that God chooses to give us. God alone is the real source of life and everything in that life for His people (John 15:1-5, John 14:6).  He is our all in all.  God’s Word, the Scriptures, is life-giving and life-sustaining.”

The spiritual food that we really need is every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.  Such words are both life-giving and life-sustaining.

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