Spiritual Food
Be Strong, Be Well — Wednesday, October 28, 2020
It doesn’t take much sometimes for us to get caught up on the subject of food. We ask, “What’s for dinner tonight?” “Have you been to the new restaurant?” “I have a great recipe you need to try.” “I’m on this new diet. I’m eating the right kinds of food.”
Soon we’ll be talking about the holidays and the meals we’ll spend together with our families. Eating and food has been part of our daily routine since the time we were born. It will be necessary until the day we die. We all need food to live and stay healthy.
It’s no wonder why the Bible uses the idea of food and eating to make an application to our spiritual lives. This is the message of the shepherd and his sheep grazing in the fields (Psalm 23; Ezekiel 34:14; John 10:9).
We need spiritual nourishment to grow in the spirit. Peter wrote, “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious” (1 Peter 2:2, 3).
Paul said there’s a difference between spiritual milk and strong meat. “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Hebrews 5:12–14).
“And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35; cf. vs. 51).
The best food for the soul, the best food for our spiritual mind, is the Word of God, the Bible. If we feast on its goodness now, we’ll be rewarded with a new home in heaven where a feast has been prepared. We’ll sit at the table with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. “...’Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’” (Revelation 19:9).
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God” (Revelation 2:7; cf. 22:2).—Chris