Eat This Book

“I am the bread of life… This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.” JOHN 6:48-50 NRSV

Well-known author Eugene Peterson wrote a book entitled, Eat This Book, which encourages every Christ-follower to the vital practice of meditating on God’s Word daily. He draws the attention of every Christ-follower that the Bible, all of it, is livable; it is the text for living our lives. It reveals a God-created, God-ordered, God-blessed world in which we find ourselves at home and whole.

He invites us as Christ-followers to: ‘…feed on Scripture. Holy Scripture nurtures the holy community as food nurtures the human body. We don’t simply learn or study or use Scripture; we assimilate it, take it into our lives in such a way that it gets metabolized into acts of love, cups of cold water, missions into all the world, healing and evangelism and justice in Jesus’ name, hands raised in adoration of the Father, feet washed in company with the Son.’

Our time daily in God’s Word is not just a ‘drive-thru’ mobile facility where we ‘pick and choose’ from the Bible what is most convenient for us as we rush off for the day. We should seek to prepare for our time alone in God’s Word as we prepare to eat a major meal in a day.

• Find a location that helps you concentrate the most and get least distracted.
• Physically and mentally prepare yourself to actively enter the world of God’s Word.
• Avoid multi-tasking with other devices and activities while you read God’s Word.
• Beware of the tendency of wanting to rush off to the next appointment while you read the Word.
• Take a few moments at the end of your time of ‘Eating The Word’ to reflect on what you just read.