Bread Alone

If you are not familiar with She Reads Truth, then stop reading this post and anything else you may be doing and go to their website by clicking the link above or go download their app to your phone.  I have been using She Reads Truth for my daily devotions for a little over a month now and I so wish I would have known about it sooner.  Not only is it a bible app, but is also a lovely community for women to study God's Word together through daily devotions.  We are currently 6 days in to the Lent study, Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross, and, let me tell ya, it is phenomenal.  I cannot wait to get started each morning, to dive in head first to the Word and readings that are included.  Today, we were in Matthew and Mark.

I've been asking God to reveal certain scriptures to me each day...sometimes the verse that most speaks to me is the same verse that they use as the key verse, other days, it is completely different.  Today, Matthew 4:1-4 really spoke to me.  Jesus had just been baptized by John, the Spirit descends upon Him, and then leads Him into the wilderness.  Satan is there to tempt Jesus, and the first tactic the devil uses is by way of Jesus' stomach- hunger.  He knows Jesus is fasting and Satan is certain that by tempting Jesus with food, He will succumb to His hunger, therefore submitting to the temptation.  But Jesus, instead, responds with scripture, "But He answered and said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."" (Matt. 4:4)  

I love this response because anyone who knows me, knows that probably 95% of the time, I live on "bread" alone.  Not all foods, like Jesus was talking about but literal bread.  I am a bread lover... especially biscuits.  When I was little, my nickname was Biscuit Burner... and not because I burned biscuits, but because I could eat 'em, faster than you could burn 'em.  When I was around the age of 2 or 3, I told my mama I wanted biscuits for supper.  She told me she wasn't sure how to make them so I moved a chair to the counter and proceeded to show her how to make biscuits...Mrs. Irene taught me well!

I have had a love affair with the buttery, flaky, fluffy handfuls of goodness my whole life.  I even have a sign in my kitchen that says "I love you more than biscuits but please don't make me prove it."  It of course is a joke...but seriously, please don't make me prove it. 

 So when I read this verse, it speaks to me very literally and convicts me.  And up until about a month ago, I have to confess that I was trying to just live on bread.  I desired and hungered for God's Word, but was putting little action to my desires.  You see, we can survive on bread alone, but we certainly can't thrive without "every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."  We need His presence and His Word, living and active in our life...and not just once a day for 5 minutes or so.  I don't know about you but one small crumb won't get me though an entire day.  I will starve. especially now that I am not just feeding myself but the little man as well.  I need several meals, and a few snacks in between.  Why would it not be any different with God?  I desire each day to be full of God, receiving the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and overflowing with His presence.  

Jesus was in the wilderness when Satan came to tempt Him, but that's not the only place Satan tempts God's children.  He approaches them on the mountain top, by the oasis, and we know he approaches them in the garden.  The question is, will we be full on the Word or will we be tempted to take the fluffy biscuit that the devil is offering us?  Friend, let's be so full of the Holy One that the devil would take one look at us and know that it's a waste of his time to waive a tiny crumb before our faces because we're so obviously "stuffed" with God's Word.