Not By Bread Alone
Matthew 4:4(NLT) says, “People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Bread refers to the material things of life. Though necessary, and though God richly supplies us with all things to enjoy (1 Timothy 6:17), to truly live, we need the revelation of God’s word. And sometimes this can be a matter of life and death. I remember such a time when I was in my early thirties.
I was sitting on a hospital bed about to have a biopsy on a sizeable lump I had discovered in my body. At the time, I followed a reading guide that covered the whole Bible in a year. My reading for that day was:
Psalm 41:1-3(NIV): “Blessed are those who have regard for the weak; the Lord delivers them in times of trouble. The Lord protects and preserves them … he does not give them over to the desire of their foes. The Lord sustains them on their sickbed and restores them from their bed of illness.”
How incredible that of all the words in the Bible, those were the ones I read that day. The biopsy later showed that I had Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the oncologist giving me an 80% chance of recovery with eight months of chemotherapy. However, because of that scripture my first wife Jane and I stood in faith for a positive outcome. Many people prayed for me, and at the end of the year I was pronounced in remission, and have been clear ever since.
I often wonder what I could have missed out on if I was not diligent to read my Bible each day.
1 John 2:14(NIV): “I write to you, young men [and women], because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”
Is it any wonder that Satan works overtime to weaken God's word in young lives, any lives for that matter?
British philanthropist and evangelist George Muller once said: “It is a common temptation of Satan to make us give up the reading of the Word and prayer when our enjoyment is gone; as if it were of no use to read the Scriptures when we do not enjoy them. The truth is that in order to enjoy the Word, we ought to continue to read it, and the way to obtain a spirit of prayer is to continue praying. The less we read the Word of God, the less we desire to read it, and the less we pray, the less we desire to pray.”
A NEW EPIDEMIC
Today there is an epidemic amongst many western Christians, young and old, who do not bother to read their Bibles, or who are too distracted by work or leisure to do so. Evidence of this is found in the growing numbers of Christians who feel that abortion, gender fluidity, gay marriage, evolution, belief in the nonexistence of hell and so on, are all acceptable.
Taking their cues from an increasingly liberal culture, they no longer have a biblical worldview. Jesus warned that in the last days the devil, appearing as an angel of light with clever sounding arguments, would try to deceive even the most committed believer.
Commenting on two high profile leaders abandoning their faith, John Cooper, lead singer of the Christian rock band Skillet, recently said: “It is time for the Church to rediscover the preeminence of the Word. And to value the teaching of the Word. We need to value truth over feeling…let us NOT find creative ways to shape God’s Word into the image of our culture by stifling inconvenient truths. But rather let us hold on even tighter to the anchor of the living Word of God.”
SCRIPTURE IS PROFITABLE
2 Timothy 3:16(NASB): “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.”
Some time ago, the Centre for Bible Engagement surveyed 40,000 US Christians aged 8 to 80. The survey discovered:
· Reading the Bible once a week made virtually no difference to their Christian life.
· read 2x - negligible difference.
· read 3x – some difference.
· read 4x week – a dramatic difference. You would expect gradual increase in difference but at 4 times it spikes. Something radical happens. It’s probable that if we read the Bible more than half the week, God blesses it exponentially. 7x is best of course.
At 4x or more times a week, loneliness drops 30%, anger drops 32%, bitterness in relationships and marriage drops 40%, alcoholism drops 57%, feeling spiritually stagnant drops 60%, viewing pornography drops 61%, sharing faith increases 200%, discipling others increases 230%.
May we challenge you as we navigate these turbulent times? Make a commitment to read the Bible every day, even if it’s one chapter or ten to fifteen minutes a day. May we even challenge you to read the Bible through in a year? An internet search will list numerous reading guides that will help you to do just that. You will never regret the investment.
“Within the covers of one single book, the Bible, are all the answers to all the problems that face us today--if only we would read and believe.” … President Ronald Reagan.