In last week’s post, we considered the similarities between forgotten lunches of weeks and months gone by and the sermons, prayers, and Scriptures we listen to, pray, and read. We highlighted the fact that just because I don’t remember what I ate for lunch a year ago does not change the fact that that meal was important for me then and helped bring me to this point in my life. Similarly, even if I do not remember every sermon I heard, every prayer I prayed, and every Scripture I read in the last year, each one of those influences was still crucial for my spiritual nourishment and growth. 

Now consider another lesson we can learn from yesterday’s lunch. Have you ever heard someone say, “I ate lunch yesterday, so I don’t need to eat lunch again today”? Probably not! It would be ridiculous to conclude that since you had lunch yesterday, you don’t need to eat lunch again today! Yesterday’s lunch filled me and sustained me yesterday, but it cannot fill me or sustain me again today. Yesterday’s lunch was only good for yesterday, not for today. No one ever treats physical food this way, so isn’t it odd that we are tempted to treat the Bread of Life, the true food for our souls, in this way? Satan tempts us to think, I read my Bible yesterday, or I went to church on Sunday, so I don’t need to read it again today.” While it is of course true that yesterday’s or last Sunday’s Bible reading and worship do continue to benefit us today, it would be wrong to assume that since we ‘checked that box’ yesterday or the day before we are excused from needing time with God and his word again today. Instead, think of your time with God like your spiritual food for the day. You may have eaten lunch yesterday, but today is a new day, so you need to eat lunch again.

Let’s be like the Bereans whom we read about in Acts 17:10-11. “The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” These Jews were not content to just hear the word taught once a week on the Sabbath in their synagogue. May we, like them, be eager to study the Word of God daily. So this week, just remember that yesterday’s or last week’s or last years’ prayers and Bible reading can’t cover for today, a little like how yesterday’s lunch filled me up then, but it can’t fill me up today. Just as we eat physical food each day, let’s be sure to eat spiritual food each and every single day by worshipping, praying, and reading from God’s word.