Better Than a Slice of Life

“…He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need.”—Acts 17:25, New Living Translation

It is good to know we can never have too much of God. Sometimes, though, words in our everyday language try to defy that. The pending season of much eating and feasting drives that point home:

“Oh man, I’m full…I’ll have just a slice of that.”

“Looks great, but please give me just a portion of what you have there.”

We look at a word like “portion” and think the alternative would be too much, so I’ll be happy to get by with just a little. But then there is this:

“Whom have I in heaven but You?

And earth has nothing I desire besides You.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

But GOD is the strength of my heart

And my portion forever.”—Psalm 73: 25-26, NIV

Swimming against the current of all of our preconceived idea of the smallness of “portion” is this great big cross-reference from Numbers 18:29: 

“…the best and holiest part of everything given to you.”

Good to remember in the darkness as daylight grows shorter, when life’s demands grow longer, when everything around seems to be moving too fast and you want it to all slow down (or jump off the ride), and when it all can have the Adversary trying to convince you that your God is too small for this or that, or He's just a slice of life that will never really satisfy.

Better still is to fight back by posting this true definition of “portion” on our refrigerator or mirror, or better still, glue to our brain and heart:

Jesus said…Jesus still says…Jesus will always say…

“…I AM the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”—John 6:35  

“…I AM the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”—John 8:12

“…I AM the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures.”—John 10:9 

“I AM the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep.”—John 10:11 

“…I AM the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.”—John 11:25

“…I AM the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”—John 14:6

“…I AM the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.”—John 15:5

“I AM the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end…I AM the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.”—Revelation 1:8

“God is faithful! He will remain faithful because He cannot change. He is perfectly faithful, because God is never partly anything. God is perfectly all that He is and never partly what He is. You can be sure that God will always be faithful. The faithful God, who never broke a promise and never violated a covenant, who never said one thing and meant another, who never overlooked anything or forgot anything, is the Father of our Lord Jesus, and the God of the Gospel. This is the God we adore."—A.W. Tozer