It’s simple really… We should be consuming as much of Christ as we can every day. In so doing we keep His constant presence and desire to partner and participate in everything we do at the forefront of our awareness.
When Satan was tempting Christ in the desert, Christ said to him, “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Referencing the scripture in Deuteronomy:
He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
This is tying the health and wellness of our physical bodies and its nourishment to both what we eat/consume both physically and spiritually. God provided manna, a physical nourishment beyond their understanding or knowledge, to demonstrate to the Israelites that His Word is the provision of their spiritual and physical needs. And demonstrate to them the reliability of consuming Him.
I think it’s important to expand that just a little and maybe put some “modern terminology” on it… This means that Christ relied on God’s Words to nourish His mental health which enabled and empowered His physical body. I believe this is establishing that man needs the Words of God as both a physical and spiritual nourishment. What this ultimately means is, we need to consume and live on God, His son Christ and the Holy Spirit as a part of our “nutritional” conscious and physical diet. Here’s why…
John says this about Christ:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. … and just a little later he points it out like this…
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Christ himself lays it out clearly in John’s gospel too:
I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world…
Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.
Is it all coming together? Christ is the WORD; we should be consuming HIM. OK… yeah, it sounds a little weird, the whole eat His flesh, drink His blood…but this is talking about MORE than the physical. He’s saying consume me as part of a nutritious (like it’s good for us and we love to be healthy) necessity for our life’s mental, emotional, spiritual and physical wellbeing.
I mean, if Christ is relying on God in this way, shouldn’t we? If we made a choice to “be Christian” and accept Christ for who He said He is, then I’d say we absolutely should!
Are we consuming Christ in every part of life?
Let’s talk about the physical aspect and lay it out so that we can move into the second part. We’re talking of course about communion, the bread and the wine, the body and the blood of Christ. We are certainly called to partake in this as is Christ’s instruction to us. I want to be careful here, because there is a diversity of “acceptable practices” as applies to taking communion across various doctrinal and denominational ideologies.
To be clear I believe, as I think is universally recognized among Christian denominations, that communion is a sacred gift from Christ to His Church (His Church being defined as is those who accept Christ as their Lord and Savior). It is a symbol and instrument for remembrance of the glory and finality of His grace toward us and our salvation. And it is Christ’s presence with us and in us when we’re partaking of communion. It is His Eucharist (a word for communion, which means, good gift) that brings abundant life and relationship with Him. That is why He calls us to partake in it. To which we should say, yes Lord!
Partake of communion and do so as much and as often as you feel compelled by the Lord to do! This is certainly in tune with Consuming Christ in the manner we should. It can have wonderful and amazing impacts on our spiritual, mental and even physical wellness. What a great blessing the Lord has given us in this.
As to why I said I wanted to be careful earlier, I just don’t want to offend or create debate or argument around communion. In context of our personal faith, convictions and denominations there may be some variations to the possible frequency and how communion is received. Instead of debate on frequency and forum, let us recognize that God is the head of all this and knows the conviction and truth of each one of our hearts within this communion practice.
Beyond communion: Sorry if that got overly serious. I think we’re ready to come around to consuming the next “meal” that is the bread of life… Which is every other piece, part, portion, parcel, segment, section, share, slice and side of life. No seriously, it’s everything else.
Christ says it plainly…here’s a couple of examples:
“The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)”
“But [strive for and actively] seek His kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
Christ’s words, actions, and life are a demonstration of the all-inclusiveness of life’s everyday things being uniquely part of God’s bigger picture for us… interestingly He also points out that as we have this mindset ourselves He’s there to keep His word; in other words, he’s got our backs. See here –
Our friend the Apostle Paul lays out some of the how we go about consuming the Word. Here’s what he has to say:
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. “
“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.”
I would suggest that these scriptures, along with the others we’ve seen above, make it clear that it’s all encompassing as it applies to life and the what, when, why and how of “consuming” Christ for our own good and the good of our conscious health and overall wellbeing. We should be connected, empowered, consuming and aware of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So, what keeps us from that?
Many including myself often times would say it’s distraction. And distraction seem like an obvious target right, after all there’s so many – work, social media, running errands, internet, news, planning things, events, TV, trips, dinner with friends, cleaning, classes… is that enough examples? Good… Now get this. It’s not true. Distractions aren’t the problem. Sure, we get “distracted” and our conscious mind, our train of thought, our mental occupation shifts and wanders in a thousand different directions, but I don’t believe that is what prevents us from “praying without ceasing” or “setting our mind on things above and keeping it set”. So, what’s the problem? We may not like this answer, but simply put, it’s what we believe. More specifically it’s how we think and define for ourselves what this call to continual prayer and awareness means and looks like in our lives. It’s our understanding and believing of the who, what, where and how of God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) that keeps us from, or propels us toward staying dialed in and connected with Him all the time.
God being All-in-All would seem straight forward, we should understand God is present everywhere all the time, He has created all life and matter, He is the source of all creative ideas, He’s the origin of all inspiration, God is the programmer, the coder, the designer of how your body and the universe works… Yet we “forget” this, we mentally compartmentalize (meaning we mentally separate and isolate) what we do and think from God’s presence and involvement in things because, we are NOT All-in-All. So, what’s this mean? It means, that all those so called “distractions” may not all be distractions. Ok, some might, but I would argue that that’s only if you’re using that distraction to intentionally avoid God and your awareness of His presence in you. But that’s a whole different subject, let’s stick with the so called mindset of “distractions” we’re saying are the problem.
See, we think we get distracted and lose focus of God and what’s important, there is at times perhaps a bit of truth there, but it’s a misunderstanding for many. Because if God is All-in-All then He is involved and present in every aspect of our day, including our “distractions”; every conversation, every work task or project, every meal we’re preparing and eating, every show we’re watching (p.s. I might be feeling a little uh-oh moment of conviction on that one), all the time we spend online (yes, I’m talking to you/us social media junkies), each step of our runs and all those reps at the gym… ALL. OF. IT.
The Psalms point it out like this:
Christ tells us like this:
I want you to see this one in “The Message Bible” as well:
“I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing.”
What is Christ saying here? He’s saying that He is the source (the vine) of all good productivity, processes, prosperity, resilience, perseverance, results, benefits and blessings (that’s the fruit!) and that we are the instrument, conduit, vessel, tool (that the branches) from which these good fruits go through. Because we abide in him, meaning, we are aware and accepting of Christ’s love for us, and that He lives in us, and our natural desire is for this supernatural relationship with Him, we receive the vital mental, emotional, spiritual and physical nutrients we need to thrive in this life!
The sooner we take hold of this the sooner we can begin to fully recognize that, if we’ve acknowledged and accepted Christ as our salvation, there is no longer any separation. Everything we do, everywhere we go, and everything we think about, He is there. Some of us might not always like this notion.
After all, there are certainly plenty of instances in my own life and memory that I might rather not have God present in and hearing, seeing knowing EVERYTHING. And perhaps that’s where the real source of many of these “distraction” stems from. In the desire to create some sort of privacy barrier for ourselves, because, in reality, we don’t want to include God in everything. On the surface this might seem reasonable, after all, everyone deserves their privacy, right?? However, with any real scrutiny and honest self-reflection it becomes clear, we simply want to hide “the bad stuff” about ourselves that we don’t want to face in us, don’t want to share with people, and CERTAINLY don’t want GOD to know about!
BREAKING NEWS: GOD KNOWS …sorry / not sorry.
It’s amazing though because, every place, thought, encounter, fun new challenge, not fun life struggle, cool concert, and mundane chore, He’s there! And, as soon as we are willing to look at and accept this, we become free to engage and encounter with Him at will. That is – Brilliant! Awesome! Outstanding! Encouraging! Fun! Entertaining! Inspiring! Empowering! Delicious! Right?!
I’ve heard people say in the past, “Make Jesus part of your day” but actually, HE IS OUR DAY! He MADE the DAY. FYI, God made yesterday, AND He is cooking up something good for tomorrow too no doubt! 🙂 I’m being silly and serious at the same time here; we say we’re Christian and we believe the Bible to be true. Do we? Then I guess we need to come to a place where we believe this whole All-in-All thing and understand that Christ IS Life and begin to live accordingly.
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner | Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
It’s true, I’m using the heading above because it’s catchy and it rhymes, but there’s good application in it as it relates to what we’re discussing here. The practical reality of everyday life. It’s IN that practical life that the idea and realizing of consuming more of the goodness of Christ in our daily lives is needed. So, let’s take another look at “distractions”…
I think sometimes people (and by people, I mean me and possibly one or two others on the planet) feel guilty about not reading the Bible more or not spending enough time reading “Godly books” or not listening to good sermons or going to church or worst of all not spending time on your knees praying. But here’s the problem, this is condemnation, self-condemnation to be exact.
And let’s remember what our good friend the Apostle Paul had to say about condemnation…
So why are we beating ourselves up on this stuff? Perhaps more important than it being self-condemnation, it misses the mark completely in nourishing us and filling our spiritual and physical beings the way God intends. Please don’t misunderstand, I believe THERE IS MUCH TO BE GAINED THROUGH reading the Bible, Bible inspired books, time on one’s knees or one’s face in prayer, and fellowship in a community of other believers. The point is simply that all this should come from the place of a desire to grow stronger in the experiential understanding of God’s nature, WITH GOD, not some self-inflicted obligation to make us worthy. And that while these practices are all fine and good, it does not exclude any other moment as a potentially EQUALLY VALUABLE TIME of EXPERIENCING RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LORD.
Being honest with ourselves, do we desire to know God better? Do we want to love and know Christ in a more personal daily way? Have we already accepted Christ into your heart, believing in him, His Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit? If you’re not sure about these questions, it’s ok, I would simply encourage you to explore more about the simple reality that, God Loves You, read the link I just shared above. It’s Paul’s prayer and hope for those reading it to know and understand God’s love for them. (I have placed a couple more links at the end of this that I hope you’ll consider.) I pray and invite you in the same way Paul does and if your heart is open to it, I trust and believe God is able and will make known to you how beautiful, well loved and unique you are to Him.
Now… If you agreed and said yes to the questions above, wonderful! Let’s live from there! Knowing and believing that He has the same desire and purpose of union and relationship with us.
We need to be coming from a place of knowing that God is pleased with us simply because He’s made us. Not because of anything we are or aren’t doing, but because we are created by Him in His image and likeness and because we have unified ourselves with Christ through acceptance and belief in Him. Grace, Love, Forgiveness, Joy, Peacefulness: these are the free gift results of the recognition, acceptance and CONSUMPTION of the unique love relationship God wants with us – body, mind, and spirit.
I’d like to share these verses along with the definition of a word, because it pulls the idea above together with such simplicity.
Definition of “WAY/WAYS” –
- a method, style, or manner of doing something
- a person’s characteristic or habitual manner of behavior or expression
- the customary modes of behavior or practices of a group
- the typical manner in which something happens or in which someone or something behaves
Because God made us so uniquely ourselves, He wants to be there in every moment of our life. His desire is to be WITH US and He ENJOYS IT because as we “lean on and trust in Him” He gets to show us the best WAY for us to go! And it’s personal, it applies to our unique personality and understanding of our circumstances and situations. We’re talking about life’s mundane, because there’s lots of fun moments of learning there, and we’re talking about life’s extraordinary because He’s equally able and ready to give us the perfect mindset in these moments as well.
The catch…? NO CATCH! It’s mindset and deciding we believe it’s real. It’s us simply saying to Him and ourselves, “We REALLY want and need the love, friendship, encouragement and advice God! We’d like to do a better job navigating this life of ours, we know you’re the best at it, we believe you want to helps us out with it and, we’re listening”!
So, when we’re doing the laundry and our mind wonders to our plans for the weekend or we have some inspiration on a project we’d like to start; we automatically assume that this is happening with the All-in-All and those plans have Him in it; and that inspiration is coming from Him because we’re consuming and consumed with ALL that Christ is! Which is ALL of LIFE! Christ and Us, together, co-labored, in this life, moving in the WAY the Father, Son and Spirit has purposed uniquely for us.
Full circle:
It’s about consuming Christ as much as we can so that every part of our daily life gets infused with awareness that we’re living, we’re alive, and it’s a gift from God and the more we consume Him the healthier we are body, mind and spirit. So how are we consuming more of Christ? – Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner | Facebook, Instagram, Twitter – Maybe you’re not a social media person, if that’s so good for you, but I keep saying it because for many these are habitual pieces of our life and they consume much of our thoughts several times a day.
Getting on Facebook we start looking at our “News FEED”, we’re consuming it! So how about “liking” some inspirational pages on there or keeping better track of the peeps on there that you know like to push out uplifting and encouraging stuff. There’s a little Christ consumption opportunity in just about everything we do. How about paying attention to the tough to read news article you see and taking the time to pray about it and have a conversation with God over the subject matter? You’re reading it with the Lord anyway why not let Him give you some unique wisdom on the truths and challenges that perhaps aren’t even being said. These are just to say there are practical ways to “practice this” and help yourself implement this type of thinking.
In that same vein, there is a plethora of advice and study guides on a “closer walk with God”, much of which are great and it’s worth using these tools. But with all humility I must say, I believe there is no one formula or set of steps that each of us can follow to achieve that moment to moment conscious union. Because we’re individuals, uniquely made by our creator, and Christ is looking forward to the development of relationship, of drawing us in and teaching us the what and how of that personal union with our Triune Lord.
Decide to believe.
Decide to acknowledge.
Shift to expecting and experiencing.
He’s there all the time. Breakfast – Lunch – Dinner …
When the Lord was downloading this with me and we were talking about it I was so inspired, and it’s simple. No really, it totally is. I have no idea why it took me SO many words to explain it here! Lol.
To that point, thank you so much for reading, I hope it was somehow encouraging to you. If you have questions or would like to engage about something I said, please contact us directly through the contact form on our website.
As promised here’s a few links providing some scriptures about God’s Love for you. I would encourage you to read them, and then have your own conversation with God. You might be surprised. God Bless You and His Peace be upon you!
14 Bible Verses about God’s Love
20 Bible Verses about God’s Love
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