Live by Every Word: A Meditation
Dear Friends, I am privileged to be leading two workshops at the PCA Women’s Leadership Training February 20-22 in Atlanta. The overall topic of the training is Refreshed: Help and Hope for the Suffering. I’ll be teaching one on how God’s Word is so very near in suffering and another on grieving with hope as we wait. This training is open to everyone. Today, I’m sharing an excerpt from The Waiting Room: 60 Meditations for Finding Peace & Hope in a Health Crisis which reminds us of how God works through his Word in our suffering. I hope you enjoy it.
Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Deuteronomy 8:3, NLT
Anyone who has spent much time in the waiting room knows the humbling that comes during a health crisis. Stripped of the familiarities on which we often depend for comfort, we learn that we do not, in fact, live by bread alone.
The profound hope of Deuteronomy 8:3 is that God did not merely humble his people, but he also fed them. He fed them physically with something called manna, a word that in the original Hebrew literally means, “What’s this?” It was a food unlike anything the Israelites had ever heard of, seen, or tasted. It fell from the sky, and it looked something like Frosted Flakes but was a lot more nutritious!
God fed his people physically with this strange food, and he fed them spiritually with his Word. As we do our time in the wilderness of waiting, we are humbled, and our hunger and thirst for good news intensifies. More precisely, more powerfully than any IV fluid, God’s Word drips into our hearts and minds to slake our thirst, to energize us with the faith, hope, and love we desperately need.
Our faith grows strong muscles as we drink in the stories of miraculous deeds God has already done, such as…
- plastering the land of unbelieving Egypt with frogs (Exodus 8:2).
- knocking down a city wall with trumpet blasts (Joshua 6:1-6, 20).
Our hope is fattened up as we eagerly digest words like, “This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner” (1 Peter 4:13, MSG).
Our love is energized to flow outward as we taste the goodness of the Lord’s delight over us and the comfort of his nearness to us:
“The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing” (Zephaniah 3:17, ESV).
Throughout our journey in the waiting room, I was often asked about my apparent calm. I could only explain it by pointing to three essentials: prayer, The Word, and community.
Dear friends, take up and read this marvelous Word; you will find there the sustenance you intensely crave.
Prayer:
Lord, we thank you for feeding us what we most desperately need – your Word. Not only did you provide the Scriptures, but you made the Word flesh, and you sent Jesus to dwell among us. Help us by your Spirit to meet Jesus in your Living Word day by day, moment by moment. Amen.
Further Encouragement
Read Deuteronomy 30:11-14; Romans 10:8-10.
Listen to “The Word Is So Near” by Michael Card, https://youtu.be/biXrKOaIJq4.
For Reflection
What verses have encouraged your faith, hope, and love during this season? Write them out in a journal, on a card, or on a note app on your phone.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash