Daily Bread.

I’ve made it to that sweet spot in pregnancy where food is GOOD. So good. I mean, everything tastes amazing. I’m not craving anything in particular, but I have far less aversions than I did in my first trimester. I have to be careful to not overeat, because I’m hungry constantly and it’s all so wonderful. This comes after the weeks of morning sickness, when nothing seemed appetizing. I felt nauseated all the time, and nothing appealed to me to eat. The first few weeks, it was a victory to force myself to eat something other than Saltines!

But this new hunger and deep satisfaction in food makes me think about how we are meant to consume the word of God. Many times in scripture, the word is likened to sustenance. In Deuteronomy, Moses explains that when God provided manna to satisfy the Israelites, He used it to teach them that they must trust in Him and be filled with His word. Peter describes the word as “spiritual milk” that should be consumed by new believers for spiritual growth. Jesus even quotes Moses in Deuteronomy, saying, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matt. 4:4) Furthermore, Jesus Himself is described as the “bread of God;” and, as you may recall, He is also referred to as “The Word” in the book of John.

So what does this mean for us? Obviously, the word of God is not meant to be literally consumed as a meal to satisfy our physical hunger – don’t try to eat your Bible. Instead, as often happens in scripture, physical imagery has been used to describe a spiritual principle. God often uses things that we can readily understand, like physical hunger, to explain spiritual principles that we might miss otherwise. I think God wants us to see that our spirits must continually be nourished and “fed” just like our physical bodies. It takes more than just reading through scripture one time to sustain us. We must return to His word daily in order for our spirits to grow and be sustained the way they are intended.

Some principles we can learn:

1. Elementary principles found in the Bible are used as spiritual milk for new believers. As described in 1 Peter, everything needed by spiritual “babies” is available in the word, and it will grow and sustain a new believer the way that milk does a newborn.
2. After a time, we must move from the “milk” found in the word to spiritual “meat;” meaning, we must dive deeper in our study and discover the riches found in scripture that only comes from deeper study, guided by the Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul explains to the church of Corinth that they were not ready for spiritual “solid food” or “meat,” but were still like infants that needed milk. Thus, we can ascertain that there are different times in our spiritual life that we have different needs, but the goal is to move toward more substantial study.
3. We need our spiritual “bread” daily, much like we need to physically eat daily. In Matthew 6, Jesus gives us the “Lord’s prayer.” A portion of this is “Give us this day our daily bread.” I believe that this is a request for physical needs to be filled, but more importantly, I believe that this is an example for us to ask for our spiritual needs to be filled daily. In order to do this, we must daily consume the word.
4. The Word of God is enough to sustain us. It does not need to be added to or supplemented; it is all we need for growth. Matthew 4:4 describes this clearly when saying that we cannot live on bread alone, but that every word of God is what gives us life. Thus, we know that study tools such as commentaries, devotionals, bible studies, et cetera are certainly beneficial for us, but they are not necessary for growth. God has given us all we need in His word.
5. Much like the Israelites trusted the Lord for manna to fill them physically, we can trust God to fill and grow us spiritually when we are obedient in studying His word. The word is described as “living and active.” I have experienced this principle in my own study; I have found that I can read the same passage more than once and glean different truths from it each time. God truly uses His Spirit to reveal the depths of scriptural truths to us as we need them. We can trust that He will show us what we need in His word.
6. True satisfaction comes from the word of God. We cannot find anything in this world to fill and sustain us the way that the word is meant to. We may seek out wordly pleasures to entertain us, numb us, or delight us, but we cannot be truly satisfied by anything except God and His word. He created us to worship, but we only walk in the purpose He created us for when we worship Him. And God is glorified when we are fully satisfied in Him.
7. Ultimately, Jesus is the living embodiment of God’s word (John 1:1). We have the Bible as the word of God, and all of it points to Christ as the living, breathing picture of His word. We can always look to Jesus to see who God is.

I remember learning in my college years that there are five main ways that we can intake, or “consume,” the word of God. It was taught to us by using the illustration of a hand gripping a sword, and each finger represents a different method of Bible intake. These are:

• Hearing the word
• Reading the word
• Studying the word
• Memorizing the word
• Meditating on the word

We can engage different senses by hearing the word through preaching, podcasts, or listening to the Bible being read, and using our own eyes to read the words ourselves. Studying the word takes us a bit deeper; this can involve methods such as cross-referencing, studying the original language, comparing translations, and utilizing commentaries and bible studies. All of these give us a deeper understanding of the original intention of the text, how the whole Bible works together for the same story, and teaches us how to apply the word. Memorizing is critical for believers so that we can recall scripture at times when we really need it and it is not right in front of us. Finally, meditation on the word allows us to really “chew” on a verse or passage over a period of time, allowing the Holy Spirit to bring new things to light as we continually ponder the meaning. All of these messages should lead us toward application, where we take what we have learned from the Bible and apply it into our daily lives.

My prayer these days is that I would be satisfied and delighted by the Word of God as much as I am satisfied and delighted with physical food. I want to crave and enjoy my time studying scripture as much as I am craving and enjoying food, thanks to this pregnancy. That I would be HUNGRY for it, and sincerely feel faint and unfulfilled when I am neglecting the word. This is my prayer for myself and anyone who might be reading this, that you also would find true, deep satisfaction in His word.