“Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart.” (Jeremiah 15:16 )

Most Sunday evenings my wife and I go on a “date” to the grocery store. It’s fun! We talk about family, ministry, life, and Crossfit. But usually somewhere about half way through I’m getting hungry. “Hangry” is not a term I haven’t heard in some of our conversations.

Unloading our groceries can be a bit of a rush and frenzy. The kids are on the hunt. Apart from any snacks they find, the food won’t go straight from bag to table. It will have to go through the process of being prepared and cooked first. And even then it still can’t go straight from the table to my stomach. It has to go through the final process of entering my mouth to be chewed, broken down, savored, swallowed, and digested.

When Jeremiah finds God’s words, they don’t immediately become a joy and the delight of his heart. “I ate them,” he says. These words of God must also first go through a process. Jeremiah must take God’s Word, as it were, into his mouth and chew, break down, savor, swallow, and digest them. It’s only at the end of that process that God’s Word can begin to become the joy and delight of his heart.

Too often we approach God’s Word in a rush and frenzy. Whether to our daily reading or the pastor’s weekly sermon, we come with little patience. We expect God’s Word to automatically and instantly become for us, to us, and in us something living, active, nutritious, strengthening, and satisfying. But like any good meal, the benefit of it all takes time and requires something of us.

We must learn to “taste and see that the Lord is good”. One essential way we do this is in and through God’s Word, our daily bread. To “taste and see” God in His Word means more than a quick glance, touch, taste or smell. It means with intention and attention we come and we “eat it”.

We begin by finding a daily portion to read and “eat” from. We take small bites. We process what we’re reading slowly, a little bit at a time. We think and chew on, we meditate on, a thought or two. We savor. Which words or phrases are especially flavorful? There is sweetness and there is bitterness. Which verses are coming through, are moving us? Which are convicting, searching our innermost thoughts and desires?

We must then swallow, in order for God’s Word to reach our inner being. We must respond to God with and through what we read. Prayer and worship often result and are natural responses. Writing down what God may be saying and sharing it with our spouse or a friend is beneficial.

And we must digest it and apply what we have read. We must walk in it and walk it out by God’s grace. We must be, as James cautions us, “doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving ourselves” (James 1:22-25). When by God’s Spirit we see ourselves in God’s Word, we will also see Jesus. But if we fail to walk in obedience to him and so do and digest God’s Word, we will soon forget all we’ve heard, seen, and received. We will walk away without the benefit of the Bread of Life.

The practice of eating, chewing, breaking down, savoring, swallowing, and digesting God’s Word can lead to a delight beyond comparison. One steps away full and satisfied, enlivened and empowered, healthy and joyful. God’s Word is life and brings life to our entire being.

If God’s Word is of no use or delight to us, either we don’t take the time to eat it or we don’t understand what kind of food it is. But for those who do long and are hungry to know God, longing alone is not enough. To get the food of God’s Word into our stomach, into the inner most parts of our heart and life, we must come to the table, sit down, take, and eat.