Turn on the news today or just stop at the local grocery store, and you will see that we are dealing with a supply chain problem. My last trip to the store, I was shocked by how many shelves were bare. There was no lettuce to be had and the lunch meat section had been decimated! I would expect this on a Saturday or even the first of the month, but not on an average Monday. We all remember scrambling for toilet paper last year and the empty shelves, but things are supposed to be getting back to normal now. Right?

Our country is definitely struggling on many fronts. And with Christmas around the corner, and a family to purchase gifts for, I am genuinely concerned. I’ve told my kids to give me their requests now and I will likely have all my shopping complete before Thanksgiving. But the whole situation got me to thinking and as I was reading in my quiet time this week, the Lord brought this thought to my mind. We consume a lot in this country. Our current supply chain is in danger, limiting the consumables that are available to us. But what happens when we consume God’s Word? Does it diminish the more we take it in? It does not!

In Colossians 1:9-13, Paul writes to the church, “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience,and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.”

My study bible takes that verse apart even more and I wrote down these notes—

The request from Paul to God the Father

1. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will.
   1. What is the result of this request?
2. If I am filled with the knowledge of His will, my life must change, and in what ways will it change?

Look at that verse again, “We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way…”. Paul was interceding on behalf of this church body that the Spirit of God would fill them. But for what purpose? The more I consume the Word of God, the more His Word should fill my life, motivating every area. I don’t just read the Word; I am consuming it. And as I consume it, my life will grow, and I will bare fruit for His kingdom. Knowledge isn’t enough. We can study God’s Word and know it completely, but if it doesn’t change us, if it doesn’t “consume” us, we serve no purpose for the kingdom. I know this from watching the life of my father. My dad knew more about God than anyone I have ever met. His knowledge was great, but the Word didn’t change his heart, and thus every area of his life was affected. The ministry that he could have had never grew; he was like a dead limb that fell off a tree.

My dad prayed for me, and he asked God to grant me an even greater understanding of the Lord than he had; that means a lot to me now. I will never have the mental acuity that he had but I can say that I have learned from his struggle. I want to be changed by God. I want to grow and learn and bare fruit.  I don’t want to be the dead limb, my life wasting away, rotting on the ground. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

Supply chain challenges and shortages do not exist in the kingdom of God. As I consume His Word, apply it to my heart, allow it to change my life—I will continue to grow. “People who take God’s Word seriously don’t just read it to see what it says; they make it a map for life so they can learn what to do—and then they do it.” (The Jeremiah Study Bible)