More Important Than Food

By Greg Laurie, Op-ed contributor Saturday, February 16, 2013

If you want to learn about God and His ways, then learn to study this wonderful book God has given to us, the Bible. It is the user's manual to life. It tells us what is right and wrong and what is good and evil. It tells us how to live, how to do business, how to have a successful marriage, and much, much more.

But most importantly, the Bible tells us how to know and walk with God. In fact, everything you need to know about God is found in the pages of the Bible. That is why Abraham Lincoln said of the Bible, "All of the good from the Savior is communicated through this Book. All things that are desirable to man are contained in it."

Sadly, many people today own Bibles but seldom read them. As many as 93 percent of Americans own at least one Bible, but little more than half read it, and only 25 percent read it every day.

Yet success or failure in the Christian life is determined by how much the Bible you get into your heart and mind every day, and then by how completely you obey its instructions.

Think about that for a moment.

If you want to grow spiritually, then regular Bible reading must become a part of your life. It is essential. It is not something you will outgrow, any more than you will outgrow eating or breathing. When you begin to grasp the central place Scripture must command in your life, then you will start to appreciate Job's words about it: "I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food" (Job 23:12).

Copyright © 2015 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Bible text from the New King James Version is not to be reproduced in copies or otherwise by any means except as permitted in writing by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Attn: Bible Rights and Permissions, P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, TN 37214-1000 Used with Permission