Hunger for the Word
How the Word of God Protects, Corrects, and Directs Our Lives
The Heart of the Psalmist
Right in the center of all of Scripture sits one of the most exultant passages ever written about the precious value of the Word of God: Psalm 119. This is the longest chapter in the Bible, and it is devoted entirely to expressing love and longing for God's Word. The opening verses set the tone for everything that follows:
Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD. Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with all their heart. They do no injustice; they walk in His ways. You have commanded Your precepts to be diligently kept. Oh that my ways were steadfast in keeping Your statutes! Then I would not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all Your commandments. I will praise You with an upright heart when I learn Your righteous judgments. I will keep Your statutes; do not utterly forsake me.(Psalm 119:1–8, BSB)
And the psalmist continues with a question that every one of us should be asking:
How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to Your word. With all my heart I seek You; do not let me stray from Your commandments. I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You. Blessed are You, O LORD; teach me Your statutes. With my lips I proclaim all the judgments of Your mouth. I rejoice in the way of Your testimonies as much as in all riches. I meditate on Your precepts and consider Your ways. I delight in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word. (Psalm 119:9–16, BSB)
These expressions of love and adoration for the Word of God should stop us in our tracks. When was the last time you felt this kind of longing for Scripture? The psalmist doesn't merely respect God's Word—he delights in it. He rejoices in it. He meditates on it. And this kind of hunger is what God desires to awaken in each of us.
A Word Unlike Any Other
There is no other book in the world quite like the Bible. There are many religious texts, many ancient writings, and many works of philosophy and wisdom. But the Bible stands alone in this: it is alive. The author of Hebrews puts it plainly:
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12, BSB)
There is no other book in the world where, when you read it, you can access the author's thoughts concerning the content—in real time, through the Holy Spirit. When you open Scripture, you are not simply reading historical literature. You are encountering the living God.
Consider this: everything was created by the Word. In the beginning, God spoke, and all things came into being. And when God came in the flesh, He described Himself as the Word made flesh:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:1–3, BSB)
The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14, BSB)
The Word of God, inspired and anointed by the Holy Spirit, is the way that we can best come to know God. There is no divide between what His Word declares to be true about Him and His actual nature and character. What you find in Scripture is who He truly is.
Light from the Pages
I remember once I was doing evangelism at the Mall of Georgia. Before I got up to go share with people, I was taking a moment to pray and read the Word there in the food court. As I was reading, a young man named Brian came up to me.
Brian had been involved in a variety of things—some witchcraft, some occultism. And when he approached me, he said, "As I was looking at you reading that book, there was light coming off the pages." He asked, "What book are you reading?"
I got to share with him that it was the Bible. He started attending our church and made a commitment of faith—all from a vision he saw with his own eyes: spiritual light coming off the pages of Scripture.
We don't always get a glimpse into the spiritual realm like that. But this story illustrates the uniqueness and power of God's Word. It is alive with light and Holy Spirit insight and revelation. When it strikes our heart, it imparts grace to us.
The Sword of the Spirit
The Bible gives us a vivid picture of what the Word of God is meant to be in the hands of a believer. Paul writes to the Ephesians:
Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:17, BSB)
And in his letter to Timothy, Paul makes clear the purpose of Scripture in shaping the life of every believer:
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16–17, BSB)
There is no spiritual growth or maturity without a consistent diet of the Scripture. None. You cannot become the person God has called you to be while neglecting His Word.
The Three Elements of Spiritual Health
I like to use a simple metaphor with new believers. If you want to be physically healthy, there are three essentials: eat, sleep, and exercise. In the same way, if you want to be a spiritually healthy Christian, there are three essentials:
First, a strong devotional life. You need to eat the Word of God and pray—communing with God regularly and letting His Word nourish your soul.
Second, spiritual community. You need to be connected to the body of Christ—serving, loving, and giving within a spiritual family.
Third, reaching the world. You need to share your faith with others, living out the Great Commission in your everyday life.
If you have these three things—devotion, community, and mission—you will be a healthy Christian. It's that simple. The problem isn't that people don't know what to do. The problem is that they neglect one or more of these areas.
When Our Prayers Are Informed by the Word
Everyone prays. Everyone, at some point, speaks from their heart to God. But what I want us to consider is this: when our prayers are informed by the Word of God, everything changes. It's not only that we pray, but who we pray to that matters. And how are you going to know the One that you pray to except by His Word?
We have to consume the Word of God as our daily bread. Jesus Himself taught us to pray:
Give us this day our daily bread. (Matthew 6:11, BSB)
This speaks to physical provision—Lord, sustain our bodies. But I believe it also speaks to spiritual provision: Lord, give us the daily nourishment of Your truth, Your revelation, Your Word. We need both kinds of bread to live.
Three Ways the Word Works in Our Lives
As we look at how Jesus Himself relied on the Word of God, we can see three critical functions that the Word serves. The Word of God protects us. The Word of God corrects us. And the Word of God directs us.
If you are not applying the Word to your life in a regular way, you are without protection, without correction, and without direction. You will be like a ship at sea with a broken mast, no rudder, and no forward propulsion—tossed about by every wave and current, with no ability to navigate the storms.
1 - The Word Protects Us
When Jesus was confronted in a moment of great trial and adversity—when the evil one tried to break Him with temptation—Jesus responded with three words that changed everything: "It is written."
When tempted to turn stones into bread after forty days of fasting, Jesus declared:
It is written: 'Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'(Matthew 4:4, BSB; quoting Deuteronomy 8:3)
Through every temptation, Jesus wielded the Word of God as the sword of the Spirit. He didn't argue with the devil. He didn't debate. He spoke what was written, and the Word provided protection. The same resource is available to you.
2 - The Word Corrects Us
Jesus also used the Word to correct wrong thinking—even among the most religious people of His day. When confronted with the people’s ignorance and the incomplete teaching of the scribes and pharisees who had distorted the truth of God, Jesus corrected them with the right interpretation of God's Word. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, He declared:
You have heard that it was said to the ancients, 'Do not murder' and 'Anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. (Matthew 5:21–22a, BSB)
Again and again, Jesus took what the people had heard and corrected it with deeper truth from God's Word. He didn't abolish the Scriptures—He fulfilled them and revealed their fullest meaning. In the same way, the Word corrects our wrong beliefs, our distorted perspectives, and our sinful patterns when we submit to it.
3 - The Word Directs Us
Jesus knew the prophecies concerning the Messiah, and He let the Word of God direct the course of His life—even when it directed Him straight into suffering and death.
The scene is the Upper Room on the night before the crucifixion. Jesus has just shared the Passover meal with His disciples and instituted what we know as communion—breaking bread and sharing the cup as symbols of His body and blood. He has washed their feet. He has told them that one of them will betray Him. The weight of what is about to unfold is pressing in. And in this moment, Jesus begins to prepare His disciples for the violence that is coming. He tells them that the time of peace and provision they had known is shifting—that He is about to be arrested and executed. And then He reaches for the Word:
For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in Me: 'And He was numbered with the transgressors.' For what is written about Me is reaching its fulfillment. (Luke 22:37, BSB; quoting Isaiah 53:12)
Jesus is not caught off guard by the cross. In the most intense hours of His earthly life, He turns to what the prophet Isaiah had written seven hundred years earlier and says, in essence: This is the path. This is what was written about Me. And I am walking into it. Isaiah had declared:
He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5, BSB)
Jesus let this Word set the course for His life and propel Him forward into His destiny—through betrayal, through suffering, through death, and into resurrection. He didn't wander aimlessly. In the darkest hour, He was directed by what had been written. And when we root our decisions, our calling, and our daily steps in what God has spoken, we too find that the Word becomes our compass and our propulsion—even when the path is difficult.
The Storms Are Coming
In His introductory teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told a parable that confronts every one of us:
Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because its foundation was on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its collapse. (Matthew 7:24–27, BSB)
Notice: the storms came to both men. The question was never whether the storms would arrive. They always do. The sudden loss of a job. A struggle with mental health—anxiety, depression. Difficulty pressing in on every side. The unexpected accumulation of debt. A sudden accident. Calamity and hardship of every kind.
We don't know what the storm will be or when it will come. But the storms come invariably. And the one whose life stands firm through the trials is the one whose foundation is built on the Word of God.
But here's the key: it is not enough to stuff yourself with the Word in an hour of crisis. You have to build up a steady diet of God's Word consistently—day by day, week by week—so that when the storm hits, you are already rooted. James puts it this way:
Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves. (James 1:22, BSB)
Let the Word Dwell Richly
Paul gives us a beautiful picture of what a life saturated with the Word of God looks like:
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, with gratitude in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16, BSB)
We sing the Word of God. We read the Word of God. We meditate on the Word of God. We study the Word of God. We find new and creative ways to engage with it. The goal is not mere information—it's transformation. It's letting the Word take up residence in our hearts so deeply that it shapes everything we think, say, and do.
Practical Steps: Growing Your Hunger
Wherever you are in your journey with Scripture, there is a next step for you. Here are some practical ways to begin growing your hunger for the Word:
If you're just getting started: Download a YouVersion devotional. Read the daily passage and the short reflection that comes with it. This is one of the simplest things you can do to begin building a habit of engaging with Scripture.
If you're ready to go deeper: Pick up a Bible reading plan. A chronological Bible, a Bible journal, or a YouVersion plan that takes you through the entire Bible in a set period of time. Set reminders on your phone. Use every tool available to you.
If you've never read the entire Bible: I want to challenge you—make this the year. Reading through the entire Bible is one of the most transformative things you can do as a believer. There are reading plans that will guide you through the whole of Scripture within the span of a year.
Ask the Lord: What is a way that I can begin to grow and be more consistent in Your Word? How do I take the next step?And then take it.
The Word of God is the sustenance of our life. If you do not consume it, you will be spiritually anemic and weak. But when you hunger for it—when you let it dwell richly in your heart—you will find that it protects you in temptation, corrects you in error, and directs you toward your God-given destiny. The storms are coming. Build on the Rock.
All Scripture quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), available under a free usage license at bereanbible.com.
