Imagine this scenario… You’re sitting in the middle of your kitchen floor. The refrigerator is freshly stocked with everything you could possibly cram into one chillin’ machine. The pantry has 6, maybe 7 different cereals from which to choose (That’s an image I love!), along with an array of every conceivable pasta, canned food stuff, snack foods, condiments galore, baking goods, and seasonings to create any flavor in the culinary rainbow. And in the freezer, oh my, in the freezer there’re enough choice meats and frozen treats to cause a hungry man to weep, then dance.
But you’re sitting there in the middle of your kitchen floor, and you’re overheard saying/moaning, “I am so doggone HUNGRY… no, make that famished… I mean ravenous, I really mean starved! I’ve got belly pains… I feel weak and faint, I may die… I’ve got calorie cramps… My mouth is parched, even my toenails are dehydrated… My stomach is speaking in tongues, I’m so desperate!”
If that was me bemoaning my sad state, as a friend, I hope you’d simply say to me, “Get the heck up from the middle of your kitchen floor and eat and drink your fill, you silly forlorn moron. You have everything you need right in front of you!” (Of course, you’d probably say something much sweeter and kinder than that to me…, or not!)
In the realm of encouragement, the parallel to this illustration is really easy to see. In Romans 15:4, Paul refers to the “encouragement of the Scriptures” as a primary means of hope and endurance. Too many of us ignore, avoid, dance around, “lucky dip”, or at best, snack on the Bible. Some of us may even be dangerously anorexic when it comes to “feasting on the Word.” Dear friends, precious brothers and sisters, God gives encouragement through the Scriptures like nowhere else, for everything written in the Bible, ultimately, will reveal more of Jesus to us. I pray these gospel-sanity devos will not be a substitute for your Bible reading and study, rather a good teaser and appetizer. The real entre of encouragement is found by finding Jesus everywhere in the Bible, and feasting on Him, the Bread of Life and the giver of the water that alone slakes our deepest thirst!