What would happen to your health if you drank water and ate food as much as you read the Bible and go to church?
Most people don’t read the Bible or go to church. Of those who do, most read the Bible or attend church sporadically. And guess what? As you look around at society, can you not see the lack of spiritual health?
Jesus fasted for 40 days. In doing so, He took His earthly, physical body to the brink of death. I’m not a doctor, but it doesn’t take a doctor to tell you that He would have lost a great deal of weight, been severely malnourished, and would have been on the brink of organ failure and death.
In His earthly body.
It was at this point when Satan showed up. Ever notice how the Enemy often shows up when we’re at our weakest?
The Synoptic Gospels all tell us of the Temptation. Mark is concise. Matthew and Luke go into more detail. They differ in how they order the second and third temptations. Both agree on the first. The first thing Satan did was encourage Jesus to turn stones into bread.
Physically, Jesus needed food. He needed it desperately. But…
His response is telling.
But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Matthew 4:4
This article isn’t about the Temptation of Jesus, but rather about what Jesus says in Matthew 4:4. To be sure, we need “bread” (or food) to live. But we don’t need “bread alone.” What we really need is “every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
We need that!
We aren’t just physical beings. We are spiritual too. And when we don’t consume our spiritual food, our spirits wither. And when a lot of people don’t get spiritual nourishment, all of society suffers.
The spiritual nourishment we need, of course, isn’t some New Agey bonding with “the universe.” We need a relationship with our Creator, and that starts with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ (see John 3:16 and Romans 10:9-10). Once you have that relationship, you need to continually receive the word of God. That’s how you grow and heal spiritually.
Pray continually. Read your Bible regularly. And go to church faithfully.
God bless you!
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