What if I told you that I’m on a diet of bread and water for the New Year?  Yes, that’s right – bread and water – by choice; and no, I’m not in a dark cell somewhere.  It all started with these words,  “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”  (Matthew 5:6)

now that’s a diet I would like to be on, one that promises I will be filled; some translations say “satisfied”.  Psalm 34:8 challenges me to “Taste and see that the Lord is good;”  But I can’t do that if I am filling myself full of this world’s wisdom and ways, dulling my appetite for the Word of God.

The “diet” of social media, TV, books, magazines, music, radio etc. that I consume daily doesn’t fill me up or leave me satisfied for more than a moment.  Then I am again craving something to sustain me.  And if I were honest, I would admit that I don’t just want a “diet” that will sustain me (as in the bare minimum required to keep me alive) but I want a “diet” that enables me to grow and to flourish, to be healthy and to be productive.

So I am hungry and I am thirsty, but not for anything this world can give me.  I need to “taste and see” what God offers.  I find God’s answer to my need in John 6:48-51 where Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.  . . .  I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.  This bread is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

Jesus also said, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”  (Matthew 4:4)  This makes perfect sense when I realize that Jesus is “the living Word of God”.  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.”  (John 1:1,14)  Just as bread nourishes my physical body, God’s Word nourishes my soul.

I am aware of Jesus as the living, all-sustaining bread of life every time I take communion or the Lord’s Supper.  It was on the occasion of Jesus’ last meal with His disciples that “He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ ”  Jesus truly is “the bread of life.”

Jesus also told the people, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”  (John 7:37-38)  Jesus told the woman at the well who came to draw water every day, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  (John 4:13-14)

I love God’s promise in Revelation 21:6, “To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.”  I am like the deer in Psalm 42:1-2, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for You, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the Living God.  When can I go and meet with God?”

Who could imagine a diet of bread and water to be so fulfilling?  But when it’s living bread and living water that changes everything, including my life.  I am no longer lacking but am filled full.  God is able to provide.  “He split the rocks in the desert and gave them water as abundant as the seas; He brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers.”  (Psalm 78:15-16)

And as if that weren’t enough, God provides even more.  “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.  You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Psalm 23:5-6)  I will eat at the King’s table forever!

May I continue to hunger and thirst after God and His ways, because on God’s “diet” He has promised that not only will I not go hungry – but I will be filled.  I will be filled because His supplies are limitless and living.  Jesus is the living bread and the living water.  My cup really does run over!  Thank You, Heavenly Father.

sincerely,     Grace Day

 

 

 

 

 

yes, I’m still writing about New Year’s but it is New Year’s Day, after all, the day we make promises to ourselves that we call New Year’s resolutions.  Promises so easily made and just as easily broken, causing us to feel discouraged and defeated before the new year has even had time to grow old.

As I thought about this cycle of promises made, promises broken, I came across these words, “It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it.  . . .  Much dreaming and many words are meaningless.  Therefore stand in awe of God.” (Ecclesiastes 5:5-7)  Now the author is talking about vows made to God, but I feel the same way about vows I make to others and vows (promises, resolutions) I make to myself.  Better not to do so in the first place.  I just end up disappointed or disappointing someone I care about.  Better to just stand in awe of God.

But what exactly does that mean, to “stand in awe of God”?  The dictionary definition of awe is “a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear and wonder”. Therefore the word awful should refer to something or someone full of or who fills us with that mystical mixture of respect, fear and wonder all at the same time. But we have flipped the meaning of awful, which we now use to describe anything or anyone as terrible, undesirable, horrible; a person, food or experience to be avoided at all costs because they are awful.  (although our word awesome now substitutes for awful or “full of awe”)

So since I have determined not to vow or to make resolutions, I think I need to learn to “stand in awe of God.”  Proverbs 9:10 tells me, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” and Psalm 46:10 tells me to “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

I need to be still and to stand in awe of God.  The Romans refused to do this and it did not go well for them.  “For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their foolish hearts were darkened.  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools . . .  They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – ” (Romans 1:21-25)

In contrast, I want to stand in reverent fear of God and receive His promises. “Who, then, is the man that fears the Lord?  He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.  He will spend his days in prosperity,   . . .   The Lord confides in those who fear Him; He makes His covenant known to them.  My eyes are ever on the Lord, for only He will release my feet from the snare.”  (Psalm 25:12-15) “Through the fear of the Lord a man avoids evil.”  (Proverbs 16:6)

“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ ”  (Psalm 14:1) but I know better.  “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.” (Psalm 19:1)  The angels testify, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.”  (Isaiah 6:3)  The shepherds saw God’s glory and experienced that awe that is God’s due.  “An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.”  The shepherds were standing in awe of the Creator of the universe as the angel of the Lord shared with them the news of Jesus’ birth.  They were filled with reverence, fear and wonder, which is the awe with which I am to view God.  Indeed, awe is the only possible response on my part when God reveals Himself.

Even Jesus’ enemies could not avoid the response of awe when they came face to face with the revelation of Jesus’ identity.  “When Jesus said, ‘I am He,’ they drew back and fell to the ground.”  (John 18:6)  The “they” in this scenario are the six hundred plus armed Roman soldiers who have come after Jesus to arrest Him. When Jesus answers their question as to His identity, we are told these soldiers fell instantly to the ground, all of them.  They may not have been standing  in awe of the Son of the Living God, but they were demonstrating proper reverential fear and wonder, for as they lay prostrate on the ground they were showing the awe they were experiencing in the presence of Jesus.

So no promises/resolutions for me because “It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it.  . . .  Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore stand in awe of God.”    and that is precisely what I desire to do;  to stand, to kneel, to bow, to lay prostrate, to live – in awe of God.

sincerely,      Grace Day

 

 

 

 

 

“there is nothing new under the sun.”  King Solomon declared this in Ecclesiastes 1:9 as he was lamenting man’s existence here on earth.  He went on to say, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; . . .  Is there anything of which one can say, ‘Look!  This is something new?’ ”

I don’t think we are much different than King Solomon.  We are always looking for the next new thing to entertain us, to make us happy, to improve our lives; we don’t exactly know what it is, but we are seeking after it nonetheless – that ever elusive new thing that will change our lives once and for all, forever.

We are encouraged in our search for the new by the messages our culture sends us every day. Just read the captions on the magazine covers while you wait in the check out line at the grocery.  “Change your life in 10 days”,  “a new you in just 5 minutes a day”, “the secret to your total transformation revealed on page 12”, “3 easy steps to achieving your dream”, and so on and so on.  We are desiring something new but have no clue as to what that would look like or how to find it.

We also have no power of our own to create something new, that is reserved for the Creator of the universe alone.  God spoke and it came into being.  Fortunately for us, God is still making things new.  We just may not be aware of it.  “See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”  (Isaiah 43:19)

God is able to make us new and to give us new life in Him.  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”  (2 Corinthians 5:17)  God’s makeover is from the inside out.  “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”  (Ezekiel 36:26)  A heart transplant from the Maker of my heart is just the drastic thing that I need if I am to be a new person.

How do I experience this new life?  I must die to my old one.  “We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:4)  It’s an ongoing process, but fortunately God never gives up on me.  I am told to ” . . . put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your (my) mind; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”  (Ephesians 4:22-24)

I can’t do this transformation thing in my own power but I have this promise to sustain me when I feel more like my old self than my new self, “being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you (me) will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 1:6)

Everyday is a new day as I walk by faith with Jesus as Lord.  He is the One who makes all things new.  “He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ ”  (Revelation 21:5)  Allow God to make your New Year truly new.  He is the only One who can.

sincerely,      Grace Day