You Are What You Eat

Twice in two days I heard the phrase “You are what you eat”.  I hadn’t thought about that phrase in years and suddenly it showed up back-to-back!

This little quip has been around for a long time, and simply means that if you eat healthy foods you’ll be healthy but if you eat junk foods you’ll be unhealthy.  Seems pretty straight forward, intuitive, and self-evident. 

But this little axiom might be the most eternally true phrase in the English language.  Here’s why:

At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus went out into the wilderness and fasted for 40 days.  Matthew 4:2 says,

After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.

No kidding! He hadn’t eaten in a month and a half!  But, when tempted with the chance to meet the very real and tangible need to eat, Jesus said,

‘Man shall not live on bread alone
but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

For Jesus there was something more foundational, more base, more fundamental than food: The Word of God. 

That’s how Jesus began His ministry.  By telling the enemy that the Word of God is more important that food.  Then at the end of His ministry, right before His crucifixion, Jesus then said something that would have seemed very odd:

 Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” – Matthew 26:26

What?  I thought it was just bread.  But Jesus calls it his body.  And he tells us to eat it?  Ok, I guess. 

The opening lines of John’s gospel shows us what this is really all about.

In the beginning was the Word

    and the Word was with God

    and the Word was God

The most important thing is the Word of God.  Jesus is the Word of God.  Jesus tells His disciples that we are to “eat” Him.

“You are what you eat” does not mean, ”if you eat healthy you’ll be healthy”.  What it really means is

If you feast on Jesus you will live forever.

This is why we take communion.  Why Jesus said “do this in remembrance of me”.  Because we think we can be sustained by real food and cheap entertainment.  We need a reminder to consume the Word that will really bring health and life. 

The application is simple: Read your Bible.

It should be easy.  Just open to a page and start reading.  Open the Bible App and it will even read TO you.  But I think more often than not it just simply does not happen.   

So, I want to share my strategy for reading my Bible.  I definitely do not get this done every day but I am consistent.  This has evolved over the years and will likely change again at some point but this is what I do now.

Short Explanation:  

Read 1 Psalm and 1 chapter of a book of the Bible. 

That’s it.

If that’s all you do, it should take less than 10 minutes.  Next time just read the next Psalm and the next chapter.  No fancy reading plan.  No extra devotional reading.  No scholarly knowledge required. 

Read 1 Psalm and 1 chapter of the living Word of God. 

Longer Explanation:

1.  I find a quiet moment (definitely after the kids are asleep!).  This ensures I can be free of distraction and focus my attention.  I have my Bible and I usually have a notebook or journal should I want to write something down

2.  I say a short prayer to ask the Lord to guide my reading and understanding of the Word.

3.  Read a Psalm.  Start with Psalm 1 (Next time, you’ll be on Psalm 2!)

a.   If something sticks out to me, or moves me, or gets my attention, I will write it down. 

b.  When I’m done reading the Psalm (many of them are short and will only take a minute or two to read), I might try to write a one-sentence summary about what the Psalm was saying about God. 

4.  Read a chapter from another book of the Bible. 

a.   I usually tell people to start with the Gospel of Mark because it is action packed and quick paced. OR Philippians because it’s a quick and jam-packed book. 

b.  Same as with the Psalm, if something sticks out or resonates with me I write it down. 

5.  BONUS: Three Thankful Things

a.   I will write down three things for which I am thankful for that day. 

b.  I can trend toward the melancholy and this helps me cultivate some gratitude. 

This can take me 10 minutes or I can end up sitting with the Lord for half-an-hour.  The point is I am making time to consume the Word that is more important that food and sustains life better than good nutrition. 

Because if “you are what you eat” then I want to feast upon the Living Word of God.

John Day - Worship Pastor