Man Shall Not Live on Bread Alone

⁴But He answered and said, "It is written: `Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.'" - Matthew 4:4

We need milk, meat, protein. We need something that will sustain us after the carbs wear off. Something substantial.

In our short lives, people will come and go. Things will come and go. Ideas will come and go. We can't live on only these things. They aren't bad. On the contrary, many of these things are beautiful. But, to LIVE we need more. We need the long lasting protein. We need something that will sustain us. We need God, because while people, things, and ideas are fleeting, God is permanent. He is constant. He is perfect.

Now, here's the tricky part... Sometimes, in the search for God, for that sustenance that will last, we find someone else. Sometimes that person will work, unwittingly, to pull you for your search, and sometimes that person will be on a search of their own. Those two paths may converge, and when that happens you have someone to travel with. Someone who will seek God with you. And this is beautiful. The tricky part comes when you begin looking for that person MORE than you are looking for God.

It seems odd to me how easily I fall into that very pattern. On the one hand, I am aware of how much easier it is to go to, and rely on, someone who is tangibly there. It's comforting to be able to talk and have audible words spoken back. To reach out and grab onto someone and to feel them beneath your fingers. But I'm also aware that, no matter how wonderful that person is, if you're only looking to that person, if your eyes turn from God, then that glue that is holding you together will begin to crumble.

On the flip-side, God is ever faithful. Ever loving. Ever forgiving. He will never crumble or fall away. He is, in every sense of the word, perfect. And yet, despite the fact that He will NEVER fail us--despite the fact that He will ALWAYS love us--we don't always turn to Him first. More often than not, I turn away from that perfect, true, love when something more fast acting, something more immediately and sensorily available, is offered. Because God isn't tangible, and people are. Things are. We can feel him in our hearts. We can see him affecting our lives, and our world. We can even hear him, if we listen, in the words of the people around us. But we can't touch Him. We can't reach out with our hands, grab onto God, and feel Him hold us back.

That being said, God is beginning to teach me about this. If we make the conscious choice to turn to Him first, to rely on Him fully, to trust in Him, then suddenly life is that much better. When I give God the things I normally reserve for a person, something inside me shifts. It clicks and falls into place. It's a subtle thing. A small thing. Nothing huge and dramatic. Nothing that elicits that craved instantly gratifying feeling of "better." But it is infinitely more gratifying in the long run.

It's something that begins small, like a seed planted that grows slowly and steadily. It is a foundation that is laid carefully so that it will stand the test of time. It will be sturdy and strong. It will sustain. The other, the instant gratification, no matter how beautiful and good it is, will eventually disappear without a firm foundation beneath it. But this growing thing, this seed that God can plant, IS strong. Its roots go deep, and as long as you keep watering it, it will sustain you. It is much more substantial than bread.

Now, the coolest part about ALL of this, is that you don't have to just choose one or the other. Man shall not live on bread ALONE. What you do have to choose is where your priorities lie. You have to choose which of these is the most important to you. And while I can't know anyone's life but my own, I can say that if you put God first, if you keep your eyes trained on him, through the wonderful times, and the horrible ones, then things will be okay. Let Him fill you up, let Him sustain you, and experience how beautiful His love is, and everything else will fall into place.