What is your food?

Food is mentioned everywhere in the Bible.  You will find it in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Judges, 1 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, Job, the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Lamentations, Hosea, Joel, Zechariah, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, Philippians and Revelation.  I am not going to go thru all the Scriptures - but I do want to touch on two that are in the New Testament where Jesus was specifically involved.

One of those verses is in John 6:12.  This is the story of how Jesus fed the 5,000.  Verse 12 says: “So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.’” Jesus used leftovers.  The next time your family complains about eating leftovers, read them this verse!  Even though Jesus could make more out of nothing, He said to gather up the fragments so that nothing is lost.  That spoke to me.  We may be blessed with enough money to buy what we need when we need it.  But are we being good stewards of what we have already purchased?  Buying food and then throwing it out because it wasn’t used in time is a big waste of money. When Jesus fed the 5,000, He could have made just enough to feed them with nothing leftover, but He didn’t.  We can learn from this.  There will be days when we will have just enough - nothing left over.  But what are we doing with the “leftovers” when we have it?  Leftovers don’t have to just pertain to food.  We can have money, time, and resources leftover.  Are we using them or wasting them?

The other verse is in John 4:32.  This is where Jesus has just had an encounter with the woman at the well and His disciples have just returned with food and telling Jesus to eat.  Verse 32 says “But He said to them, ‘I have food to eat of which you do not know.’” Jesus isn’t talking about physical food but spiritual food.  He goes on to say in verse 34 “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work”.  What are we doing with our spiritual food?  Are we taking the Word that we have fed on and nourishing others?  Jesus went without physical food for 40 days.  I would probably have a problem going without food for 40 minutes.  How did He do that?  He was nourished by God the Father.  Are we getting enough nourishment from the Word?  Or are we on a diet?  We need spiritual food as much or even more than, physical food.  Are you in the Word everyday?  Do you skip a day, a week, a month?  Think how that would affect you if you skipped meals for that long.  I want to encourage you to feed on God’s Word everyday.  Doesn’t matter what time of day you do it or how long you spend on it.  Just do it.  Chances are you won’t skip a day without eating (unless you are fasting), so decide to not skip a day without feeding on God’s Word.