Matthew 4:1-4 covers the story of Jesus fasting in the desert for forty days. During this fast when Jesus was hungry, the devil came to him and said “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Jesus was hungry and he could have easily conjured up bread out of thin air to feed himself as he has done many times to feed others. Instead, he chose to trust in the word of God to keep him alive during the fast.

In our daily walk with God, how often do we forget that we need the word of God to live? John1:1 says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” From this verse, we know that the word that was with God, in the beginning, was Jesus himself. So what is amazing about Jesus’s reply to the devil in the desert is that Jesus was telling the devil that man shall live on every word that comes from the mouth of God even when Jesus knew that he was the word of God in flesh. John 1:14 says “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” 

We all need food to live but we also need the word of God to survive on this Earth. The word of God was written in the bible so we can read and listen to the words that God told us through Jesus Christ the living word of God. Psalm 119:105 says that “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” The word of God was written down for us so we can use it as a guidepost for our life. Without the word of God in our life, we live on bread alone and as you know bread alone does not satisfy all our needs on this Earth. We are all seeking a connection with God, with Jesus Christ who is our savior and the only way to be satisfied in this life is through Jesus Christ who is the living Word of God.

Jesus said in John 6:51 “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” We all need the bread of life, Jesus Christ, to survive and to gain eternal life. Without Jesus our life is meaningless and no amount of bread(things) consumed from this world is going to satisfy us. We all need living bread and that is Jesus Christ. We all need the word of God every day to live so that we can experience the power of the living word of God in our lives. The more you study the bible the more you will see the words of the bible imprinted in your mind and it will come to you in those times when you really need it. That live-giving word of God will only come to us when we take the time to read the bible and meditate on it whenever we can. The word of God has the power to change our lives and like Jesus said we need it in order to live much more than we need bread.