Learn to Feed Yourself!

For decades, the bears of Yellowstone Park have been a famous tourist attraction. Back in 1983 a major Arctic cold front covered much of the United States with ice and bitter temperatures for two weeks. No one could get into the Park for those weeks. When the roads finally cleared, the rangers made a horrible discovery; dead bears were everywhere! At first the rangers assumed that they had frozen to death in the Arctic blast, but later they discovered that they had died of starvation. They had become so dependent on tourists and rangers for food that the bears starved when no one was there to feed them. The crazy truth is their natural food sources were still all around them but the bears simply had never learned to find the food and feed themselves.
 
Think of this in daily terms, what if a high school student’s mother had to show up to school everyday to feed their child because they never learned to feed themselves–crazy!!! How sad are these scenarios?
 
How many kids or youth never learn to feed themselves spiritually. They become totally dependent on their pastor, youth leader, Sunday school teacher, or parents for spiritual growth. Later, they leave the home and start adulthood without the ability to feed themselves spiritually. They are unable to stand against life’s hard circumstances.
 
Consider the scenario now– you, an adult reading this today, do you know how to study the Bible (feed yourself) do you know how to sustain your own spiritual life and continue to grow? If so, good, keep it up. If not, start today learning the habit or discipline of feeding on God’s word consistently. Jesus desires to daily nourish your soul through time spent with Him in His Word.
 
Decide now, this day, how you will learn and continue to feed yourself with God’s Holy Word! We should do as Paul instructed Timothy in (2 Timothy 2:15) “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”
 
In His Service,
Eric Barnes