[MajestyJo]

Thursday, June 12, 2014

You are reading from the book Food for Thought

More Than Bread

Without a Higher Power, we grasp at material things for security and inspiration. Since they do not give us the ultimate satisfaction we seek, we are left in despair. We need more than bread, but we do not know how to go about getting it.

OA leads us back to the spiritual basis of our lives, which we may have lost. All we have to do is be willing to believe in a Power greater than ourselves. When we see what has happened to others who have suffered from the same hunger that plagues us and who have found meaning and fulfillment, we let go of some of our doubt and cynicism.

Lack of faith is perhaps our greatest impediment to spiritual progress. We have been thing-oriented for so long that it is difficult to change. We can agree, however, that the food we overate was not enough to satisfy us. That there is a spiritual source of nourishment, which will be adequate for our needs, is a conviction, which grows stronger the longer we work the OA program.

I pray for the spiritual food which satisfies.

The thought that came to mind was "Man can't live on bread alone."

Man does not live by bread alone

Meaning

Physical nourishment is not sufficient for a healthy life; man also has spiritual needs.

Origin

From the Bible, Deuteronomy 8: 2-3 (King James Version):

And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.

also in Matthew 4

But he answered and said, it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

and Luke 4

And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.