What can compare to the wonderful sensation of being satisfied at the end of a delicious meal? One is not still vaguely hungry, nor stuffed to painful misery. Satiety is that “goldilocks place” of being filled “just right.” It is tricky trying to balance our eating so that we hit that spot regularly.

Have you ever eaten at one of those “all-you-can-eat” buffets? I have and there is just something about all that alluring food that I am drawn to eat. And eat. And eat. When I finally come to my senses and push back from the table I am miserably stuffed. A grim pall comes over me as I remember how long this bloated, belly-bursting feeling will take to pass. Why did I do it? What was I thinking?

Or maybe you have had days that were so busy from the moment your feet hit the floor until late afternoon that you didn’t eat. You were so engrossed or entangled that you waited too long to eat. Now you are light-headed, ache-y stomached, raving hungry and grouchy. You are, in my daughter’s made up word, “hangry.” That dreadful place of low-blood sugar induced anger at little or nothing.

Comparison can be made to our spiritual lives. The Holy Scriptures are our necessary spiritual food.

We will starve without a regular diet of reading, hearing and meditating on them. It is difficult to get a good balance on the amount of Scripture we regularly read. We are not like boa constrictors. They devour their prey in one large bite and then go for weeks or months without eating again. Physically and spiritually we need to eat much smaller meals much more often. A binge-eating episode at the buffet is really hard on our physical body. And, although it can seem pretty “holy” to read a long passage or even a whole book of the Bible at one sitting, it is like eating at the buffet. There are times when it is helpful to read a long passage. If you are beginning a study of a particular aspect or book of Scripture, reading for an overview is helpful. But for daily spiritual nourishment, we need to be more moderate.

The opposite approach is also a problem. Taking one small verse (or even a phrase) and considering that adequate spiritual nourishment is rather like eating a single soda cracker and thinking you have the nutrition you need for the day or even the week.  Many Christians think that the single verse at the top of the page of a little devotional book plus the short homily that accompanies it is enough to grow on spiritually. I would challenge that notion. It is entirely too easy to take little bits of Scripture out of context and be badly mislead about what God is communicating. Think of that little story about someone who uses the “point and read” method of daily devotion. She opens the Bible and points to the verse she is going to feed herself on today. It reads: “And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed, and he (Judas) went away and hanged himself.” Matthew 27:5 Well, that isn’t terribly uplifting, so she tries again. “…then Jesus said to him, ‘go and do likewise.’ “ Luke 10:37b It is so easy to misunderstand God if we only listen to a single sentence or two of His Word to us.

May I suggest a way to eat a more satisfying spiritual “meal”?  Get your Bible out. Now open your little devotional booklet. Find today’s verse in the selection in the Bible itself. Go digging for the context by reading the verses that come before and after the one in your devotional. It should be obvious where the paragraph or thought starts and ends.

Using the two verses I just noted, here is what I mean. Open your Bible to Matthew 27. Find verse 5 and then “back up” until you come to where the thought begins. Verse 1 starts to tell this part of the story. Begin reading there and it will be obvious that you should read until verse 10. When you have read that amount, there is much to consider that will feed you spiritually. Now try the verse in Luke 10. If you “back up” to verse 30 and read through verse 37, you will have a really nutritious spiritual “meal.” This amount of reading can be very satisfying without leaving you starved or stuffed.

QUESTION: What are your spiritual eating habits?

Are you feeding on God’s Word in a way that nourishes your soul or are you starving and spiritually anorexic?

Will you commit to reading more substantial portions of Scripture? I pray that you will be well-fed and spiritually robust because of your diet of God’s Word.