Part 52 - Eat it up 

You know sometimes we can get stuck in a rut with our thinking. We can go over a particular problem, or a solution again and again.

It is understandable at times of high stress, such as many are experiencing now. We might spend all our time thinking about how we are going to live in a post-COVID world. Apply it to any situation; we might have money problems, relationship problems... any number of things. In our Bible reading this can make us focus on one theme. For example, it is not uncommon to simply read the psalms and nothing else in a time of high stress, because we understand that they are very accessible and easily applicable. But vary your diet as well. While it is good to read the psalms every day if you can, perhaps taking one or two in the morning and evening, we also need to be reading the whole variety of the Bible.

Believe me, I know what it is like. At one difficult phase in my life, all I could read was Psalm 139 for a week. I think God gets that, and is incredibly patient with us. We aren't saved by a wide variety of Bible reading. But, we wouldn't think it was healthy just to eat crisps all day every day would we? Or pasta alone? Or cheese?

At this time we need to be eating up the whole counsel of God, nourishing ourselves on everything God has to say. As Glynn and others often advise from the front of church, the Bible in a year is the best way to go, probably. You see, I would never choose to read the genealogies at the start of 1 Chronicles, of my own volition. I would prefer one of the well known purple passages of the Bible, that are dripping with gospel applicability. But, you know what? God blessed me by reading 1 Chronicles 1-4 this morning. I sat there like a baby saying, "Lord, do I have to?". But he helped me to see the genealogy of Jesus there, and how it matches up with the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew chapter 1. It made me stagger back in wonder, to see afresh that Jesus entered our messed up humanity and did so, humbling himself to join a family of motley characters. It made me thank God again for how the Bible, written over so many years, adds up and internally authenticates itself.

So make sure you're eating a rounded spiritual diet in the tough times. Because as you do it— asking him to bless you in faith— God will make you healthy.