Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from radical.net.

Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 3.

And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna,

which you did not know, nor did your fathers know,

that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone,

but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

So this verse is recounting what God did back in Exodus, providing bread from heaven for his people on a daily

basis. And here God is telling us why he did that. He did that so that they would know that

that they live, like their sustenance is based not on bread alone, but on the words of God,

on the provision of God in His Word. In other words, more important than breakfast for you and me is the word of God. More important than lunch

or dinner or a snack is the word of God. Obviously this verse is about hunger and God providing food, but at this point I would just

encourage each one of us to consider the place of fasting in our relationship with God. I don't

know how regular fasting might be in your relationship with God, but I want to encourage you to

make it a regular part of your relationship with God, to physically put aside food for a meal,

for a day, for longer if God leads, and to say more than I need physical food. I need spiritual nourishment

from God's word. This is a good discipline that Jesus expects us to do, that the scriptures

show us how to do and call us to do. So let me encourage you to fast.

And the reason I mention that here is because that is one of the clearest ways

that we can see.

We don't live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

So we set aside food, we substitute

the time we would eat with prayer and study of God's word. And when we get hungry, we say,

...