At the beginning of the year, it only makes sense to turn our attention again to the Scriptures. Over the last week, I’ve written a few posts on getting into the Word (see here and here). Yesterday, I preached on the same topic from Psalm 19: “Getting into the Word.”

Here’s an illustration from that sermon that got left on the cutting room floor. May it encourage you as you read the Word.

Getting into the Word Depends on Craving the Word

By nature I love sweets. When Elf speaks of the four food groups as candy, candy canes, candy corn, and syrup, I’m all in. Well, except for candy corn. I’ll take chocolate instead.

I remember when I was four going to the coffee station where my mom worked and finding sugar cubes. I would sneak one. Eat it. And return for more.

Thirty years later, I still love sugar. And so do my kids. Who taught them to do that?  No one. As if by genetic predisposition, they have a craving for sugar.

The same thing happens when God regenerates a person. In the new birth, God changes our taste buds, so that God’s law which was once bitter is now sweeter than the purest honey (see Psalm 19:10).

Still, the born again Christian may not experience this. Because you have 10 or 20 or 80 years of tasting sin, it is a fight to keep craving God’s word. Nevertheless, this is the way God gets his word in us.

He doesn’t just give commands. He raises us from the dead, so we have a living desire for God’s Word that surpasses a desire for anything else! And not surprisingly, God uses his Word to create that desire in us (James 1:18; 1 Peter 2:1–2).

It is my prayer God would graciously create in you that appetite in 2016. As you read Psalm 19 or listen to this sermon, may God make his word sweet to your taste.

Soli Deo Gloria, ds