November 28, 2019
The Best Feast This Holiday
Wendy Speake
Today’s Truth
How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (Psalm 119:103, ESV)
Friend to Friend
It’s the sweetest season of all. Thanksgiving feasts and all things pumpkin-spice, holiday pies and Christmas fudge, peppermint bark and grandma’s candied yams! And yet, amidst the baking and the taking of sweet-treats to all the gatherings, it’s God’s Word that we must keep at the center of our celebrations, and the forefront of our festivities. But what does it really mean to taste and eat God’s Word?
The imagery of consuming the scriptures is found over and over throughout Scripture. In Ezekiel 3:3 we read that God fed the prophet Ezekiel a scroll containing His Words. God said to Ezekiel, “Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.” To which the prophet responded, “So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth” (NIV).
In Revelation 10:8–11, John was charged to eat the scroll that an angel handed to him. John found it to be true and so have I: devouring God’s Word is the secret to feasting on the right stuff this holiday and every day! Feasting on the satisfying sweetness of Christ, ingesting His Word and enjoying His presence, is not only the best feast at Thanksgiving and Christmas but year round! How sweet to live a feasting life 365 days a year!
Are you hungry to ingest the transforming and fulling presence of Christ? You get to do that each time you “consume” His Word. When you read John 6, for example, you eat up the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand and believe that He can fill you in miraculous ways. Then you read on and ingest the account of Him walking on water, and you’re ready to jump out of the boat and follow Him too because you have tasted and seen Him for yourself.
Each time I feast on God’s Word I rediscover that Christ truly is as sweet as honey in my mouth. But how does this ongoing feast look in our lives every day?
One of the things I’ve learned is that God’s Word can be served up all day long in different sized portions. There are snack-sized portions for on-the-go encouragement, main courses when we can really sit down and feast, and desserts that are sweet reminders of just how loved we are! One day, my dear friend Christy sent me a long list of Bible passages and categorized them for me this way: “Here are some wonderful snacks for you, Wendy,” she wrote before listing her favorite verses. “Enjoy these main courses,” she prefaced a list of longer, meatier passages—many of them whole chapters. And then, under the heading “Desserts,” she put some of the most familiar verses that are applicable when I needed a loving reminder of God’s sweet presence and faithful promises.
Here’s how I live out this feasting life, even after all the holiday feasts are done for the year. In the morning, when I wake up early enough, I snack on a verse or two to help me fix my eyes on a truth. I don’t have much time to myself since I am often rushing my kids off to school, so I enjoy my main meal of the day once I have them all settled. I read an entire chapter, sometimes multiple chapters, and then write out the verse that the Lord used most mightily to speak to me. That verse becomes a snack-sized portion I take with me everywhere I go. Oftentimes I read it in a few translations on the Bible App and then link over to other verses that flesh the lesson out further. I write down one or two of those as well. If I struggle during the day, I reach for one of the familiar verses that I’ve loved for years and years as a midday dessert to remind my heart how loved I am. When I get a text from a friend in need of encouragement, I reach again for those verses and send them off like a care package. Often, the people I encounter each day need exactly what I’ve been feasting on.
This feast goes with you everywhere you go. We must remain at the banqueting table all day long, even when we’re busy. Five minutes of nibbling on a verse in the morning won’t fill you up and fuel you through the other 1,435 minutes spent hustling around. You need a continual feast to carry you through long days (whether holidays of ordinary days.)
First Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to “pray without ceasing.” If praying is talking to God, then reading God’s Word is listening. Let’s make the conversation a continual feast! Read and pray, then read and pray some more. Let your greatest holiday feast be found in His sweet Word!
Let’s Pray
Dear Lord, Thank you for being the secret ingredient to a full and fully satisfied life this holiday and every day, all year round! You’ve whet my appetite for more of You and Your Word!
In Jesus’ sweet-sweet Name,
Amen.
Now It’s Your Turn
Do you feast on everything the world offers, but find yourself too busy to sit and feast on the Word? Are you ready to learn to feast on Him and let Him satisfy your hungry heart as you enter the holiday season?
More from the Girlfriends
Wendy Speake hosts an annual 40 Day Sugar Fast for women who long to learn to feast on the Lord and His sweet Word. Join Wendy, for forty days, as you fast from sugar and feast on the satisfying sweetness of Christ. Grab a copy of The 40 Day Sugar Fast book today, and join the online community at 40daysugarfast.com. Wendy’s next community fast begins January 6, 2020.
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GirlfriendsInGod.com
Originally published Thursday, 28 November 2019.
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