EAT YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS!

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” (Joshua 1:8, ESV).

This verse is a declaration of the availability of success as we step into our future — if we will hear and do what God is saying! This was the heart of God’s instructions to Joshua to make him a succcessful leader as he led the Jewish people into their future.

The Book of the Law was the Word of the Lord that had been given up to that time. This week we will talk briefly about the place of the Word of the Lord in our lives. Next week we’ll discuss “success and prosperity.”

I love the Word! Seeing the priority my father placed on the Word in his life has a lot to do with my appreciation of the Word and its place in my life. My dad began almost every day by spending time taking in the Word of God.

I don’t understand fully how the Word works in me — I just know it does. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and active.”

I don’t really understand how a steer can eat grass and then end up on my plate in the form of a steak or a hamburger. The transition of grass to steak escapes me and, frankly, I am not going to pursue it. But the principle is the same with the Word; I don’t know exactly how it works its work in me, I just know that it does.

The Word of God is alive and full of the spiritual nourishment we need. When we consciously take in the Word, it works in us whether we realize it or not. I like the way the Amplified Bible speaks to this in 1 Thessalonians 2:13:

“And we also [especially] thank God continually for this, that when you received the message of God [which you heard] from us, you welcomed it not as the word of [mere] men, but as it truly is, the Word of God, which is effectually at work in you who believe [exercising its superhuman power in those who adhere to and trust in and rely on it].” 

The word “effectually” in the Greek is energeo, from which we get our word energy. This passage is saying that the Word is “powerfully at work in us.” It speaks of God’s active work, through His Word, to change us, our thoughts and our behavior.

You don’t have to be a theologian to understand this. The key issue is that you put a value on the Word and that’s what I learned from my dad. Morning after morning as I came into the kitchen, I saw him sitting at the kitchen table with his Bible open in front of him. He was prioritizing his day by putting a value on the Word and its place in his life. My dad was not a pastor, he was in management at a large lumber company in Vancouver, B.C.

Honestly, there are some days I read the Bible and when I’m finished I’m not certain what I was supposed to get out of that passage. This used to bother me but not anymore and here’s why. My wife is a wonderful cook but not every single meal she prepares is a five-star culinary delight nor does it need to be. I know I need to eat a couple of times a day and if I don’t, then hunger and weakness starts to set in. So sometimes I eat something not because it’s a culinary delight but because I know I need to. I need to eat because I need to have the energy and nutritional value the food provides.

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth

In extremely simple terms, “the mouth” has two basic functions: inhaling and exhaling. We take in food, air, water through the mouth. We exhale used air and speak words through the mouth. This passage is telling us that we should be doing the same with the Word. We need to learn not only to be taking in the Word but also speaking it out through our confessions of faith, learning to pray the Word, and engaging in Word-filled worship.

It is my opinion that many Christians today have never learned to put a proper value on the Word. Fast food and occasional eating is not going to cut it if we are looking for full nutritional value. There are some extremely good daily reading guides available and a wonderful variety of translations, so there is really no excuse for not getting the Word into us.

The primary issue is that we establish the value/importance of the Word for ourselves. We tend not to put things into our mouth that we don’t value. Maybe we could entitle this devotional, “Eat your way into the future.”