“Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” - Matthew 4:4
There is more to you than just a physical body.
You have a soul and a spirit.
In the same way that your physical body needs proper nourishment to function properly, so do the other aspects that make up the totality of your being.
When Jesus replied to the devil in the midst of His 40 days of fasting and being tempted, “Man shall not live on bread alone…,” He was not condoning a low carb lifestyle.
Jesus isn’t necessarily ‘pro Keto.’
What Jesus was saying was this: “There’s more to you than meets the eye. Physical bread by itself is not enough to sustain you and get you through this life.”
We aren’t just called to have a healthy physical diet. We’re called to be nurtured on a relationship with God.
This is the only way to see your soul and spirit prosper.
Like Mary (see Luke 10:39), we must learn to feast on every word that falls from the lips of Jesus.
Posture is what’s important.
We must learn to eat from the bread of life that is our Lord (John 6:35).
These very words that proceed out of the mouth of God, this very bread that Jesus wants to give to us has an expiration date called “THIS DAY.”
The bread that Jesus wants us to eat from is baked fresh daily.
God will not refrigerate for you what you were supposed to eat yesterday.
God will not preserve for you what was yesterday’s food.
The manna that God had provided for the Israelites while in the wilderness was only good for one day.
It would show up early in the morning.
This is key!
It’s imperative that we learn how to seek the Lord when we first wake up.
I love this verse from Mark 1:35 — In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.
There is something about the early morning — well before your day and its cares get started — that makes it easy to both hear from and draw near to the Lord.
The Israelites were commanded to gather enough manna for themselves individually. Whatever was not gathered or used got worms and rotted (see Exodus 16:14-21).
This tells me a couple of things:
1.) The Israelites did not live off of one another’s stock pile. They ate from what they individually gathered. That tells me that we are not called to live off of one another’s revelations. We can encourage one another, equip one another, and challenge one another… but we cannot feed one another. Only God can do that.
2.) What we fail to eat today will be no good tomorrow.
I don’t know about you, but when I’m really hungry physically, I don’t always make the best choices nutritionally.
It’s easy for me to eat bad when I’m ravenous.
I can promise you that if you do not daily seek the Lord and eat from whatever He has for you that day, you will be hungry tomorrow.
As a result, you may not make the right choices when it comes to your spiritual diet.
All sin is counterfeit nourishment.
The enemy will lie to you about what will satisfy.
He’ll seek to get you to find what can only be found in the Lord in other sources.
He wants you drinking from the wrong well and eating from the wrong table.
But as long as we become convinced that there is something God has for us each and every day, I believe we will be spurred on to seek it out.
I am of no use to anyone when I am not properly fed.
People get cranky when they are hungry.
Similarly, my attitude isn’t the greatest when I’m not sustained by my communion with Him.
I want to be able to give from my overflow.
How am I to be overwhelmed by the Lord this year if I’m not daily eating what He wants to give?
“Man will not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”
Friends, we won’t make it living off of Olive Garden breadsticks.
We must ask the Lord for our daily bread today.
It’s only when we our inner person is strengthened that we have something to give and are able to stand against what seeks to overwhelm us from without.
Make it a point — each and every day — to seek first the kingdom of God and to wait upon Him in His presence.
Take with you this thought that He has something for you… just for you!
And remember that today’s natural food will not be enough. Let your heart ache to hear from heaven.
- Brian Connolly, Faith Like Birds Ministries
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