Food for the Soul - One Year Devotions for Men

Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength? Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen, and I will tell you where to get food that is good for the soul! - Isaiah 55:2

There is food, and there is junk food. There is food that builds the bones and muscles, and there is food that clogs the arteries. There is food that provides energy, and there is food that adds fat. In short, there is good food and bad food. Why would people spend good money on bad food? Presumably they like the flavor and discount the consequences.

God asked a similar question twenty-seven hundred years ago about how his people were feeding their soul. They seem to have been more interested in tickling their palate than in eating a healthy spiritual diet. So God asked them, “Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength? Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen, and I will tell you where to get food that is good for the soul!” (55:2).

But where specifically is this “food that is good for the soul” to be found? In the word of God! Where God’s word is taken seriously—where God’s people turn to it constantly, hungrily feed on it, inwardly digest it, and allow it to generate its life-transforming energy in their lives—it will prosper, and so will they (55:10-13). When we come to the Lord eagerly, unreservedly, expectantly, repentantly, and trustingly, we can partake of the rich food of his word. The food is not cheap—it is free! Someone else paid for it. Access to God and his provision has been provided and paid for, and the valued benefits are available to all—free of charge!

The delicious menu includes an everlasting covenant, mercies, and unfailing love (55:3), the promise of a fruitful life (55:10-12), and a “glorious” experience (55:5). But to benefit from this rich fare, we must abstain from the junk food of wrong thinking, from “the very thought of doing wrong” (55:7). It is in the womb of the thoughts that sin is conceived. So, “Let the people turn from their wicked deeds” (55:7). We must embrace a new regimen of turning to the Lord and discovering his thoughts and desires. The change in diet will quickly generate fresh nourishment, new energy, and vitality.

When the arteries of the soul are clogged through a bad spiritual diet, cardiac arrest of the spirit happens. Instead of beating regularly and powerfully with love for God, the heart becomes cold and heavy, the flow of energy becomes lethargic, and spiritual activity stops. There’s a better way, through a healthy diet of divinely provided “food that is good for the soul.” So think clearly, and eat wisely.

For Further Study: Isaiah 55:1-13

Excerpted from The One Year Devotions for Men, Copyright ©2000 by Stuart Briscoe. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

For more from Stuart Briscoe, please visit TellingtheTruth.org.

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