November 23, 2019 -- Psalm 119:57 -- Vowing to be fed

The LORD is my portion;

I promise to keep your words.

Psalm 119:57 English Standard Version

Recently I have been re-reading an excellent book on discipleship: The Lost Art of Disciple-Making. This illustration totally grabbed me:

We were in the middle of orange country when we stopped for the night at a motel. The next morning we went down to the restaurant for breakfast and I ordered orange juice with my eggs.

The waitress came back shortly with some sad news. “Sir,” she said, “I can’t bring you any orange juice. Our machine is broken.”

At first I sat dumbfounded. I knew we were surrounded by millions of oranges and I knew there were oranges in the kitchen (they used orange slices as a garnish on the plates they served). But now that I wanted a glass of orange juice, I could not have it.

I began to reflect on the situation. What was the problem? No orange juice? Hardly. We were in the middle of thousands of gallons of orange juice. The problem was that she had become so dependent on the machine that when it broke down she couldn’t serve a glass of orange juice.

Christians are like that sometimes. They may be surrounded by Bibles in their homes, but if something should happen to the pastor or church so that there was no Sunday morning preaching service, they would go without their spiritual food. They would have no nourishment for their souls. If someone is not available to break open the Word of God and feed them, they would go hungry.

LeRoy Eims The Lost Art of Disciple-Making, page 53

David named the LORD his portion. He would drink deeply from the wells of salvation. David named the LORD his portion—he would feed his soul on the goodness of the LORD and he made that his vow. We are, as Eims noted, so fortunate as to be surrounded by so many bibles, and translations and opportunities to be fed wonderful spiritual food—is that your vow and your decision today? Will you call the LORD your portion?

O come, O come Emmanuel and fill our hearts and minds with the knowledge of our glorious Father in heaven. O come, Savior of all mankind, send out Your Spirit to us so that we will rejoice as we think of all the extravagant riches given us in the Word. Mighty God, forgive us for our scant attention to all that is holy and true and our willingness to chew the straw and stubble of this world’s offerings. O come, our Wisdom from on High that our food and drink is to do the will of our Father in heaven. In so doing may our lives and our loves conform to You, Jesus, our soul’s desire. Amen.