Christmas Survival Guide | Feed Yourself

Let the big dawg eat!!!

Christmas break has started, which means we are getting closer and closer to a Christmas feast greater than at the end of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Christmas break means no more dining hall food, ramen noodles or cookout, but hopefully some meals cooked by (or funded by) our parents. No doubt that most us will be feeding ourselves during this Christmas season, but let’s talk about how we can be even more sustained and satisfied with something other than food this break.

Jesus, right after being baptized, was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for 40 days, and the devil tried to get him to turn rocks into bread to satisfy Jesus’s hunger. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8:3 and says, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God.”

Woah.

Jesus just went 40 days without eating food. Most of us get hangry if we miss breakfast. But Jesus uses the word of God to tell us that meeting our physical needs is not enough to live, but our spiritual needs must be met and they can only be met by the word of God. In John 15, Jesus tells us to abide in the word. “Abide” in the Bible means to remain or to stay continually, so Jesus wants us to continually remain in the word, because when we do, we bear fruit and we glorify God. When we read the word, we are drawing closer and closer to the living God, and James says that if we draw near to him, he will draw near to us.

So how much of the bible should we read over the break? Think about it this way: Imagine you are walking through the desert, tired and dehydrated, and you come upon an oasis. Are you going to stop and ask yourself, “What is the least amount of water I can drink and still be hydrated?”; or are you going to rush to the water and drink as much as you can? Let the word of God be an oasis to us in our dry lives.

This break, let’s feast on the word of God. As we fill up on Christmas ham, candy canes and eggnog, let’s fill ourselves up even more with God’s word. When we are not filled up with the Word, we’re not our true selves. To fully experience our identity in Christ, and the joy of the Holy Spirit, and the grace of God, we’ve got to eat the book this break. You’re not you when you’re hungry.
 
Author | Hunter MacInnis