There’s Nothing Healthier Than a Good Chew!

For twenty years, Pam and I lived near a working farm. Often, I would see cows sitting in the middle of a pasture relaxing as if enjoying the sun.  Then suddenly, they began chewing on something without taking a bite of anything.  What they were doing was chewing on “the cud” burped up by one of their abdominal chambers.

Did you know that cows have four chambers in a large abdominal area allowing them to have highly developed digestive abilities?  Once their food such as grass or hay is initially chewed and swallowed it goes to the first chamber called the rumen.  After the food is processed and softened in the rumen, it is burped up and chewed again. This burped up substance is called the cud and is chewed over and over until it is swallowed and processed in each of the other chambers of the cow’s stomach enabling them to max out the nutritional value of the grass.

Albeit a bit gross, this visual of chewing cud over and over again has a huge application regarding how we should process God’s word.  If we hurry through our daily reading, many of us read scripture without ever “digesting” it. God wants us to meditate or continue to “chew on” scripture throughout the day.  Once we do, we increasingly understand their truths enabling us to apply them in real terms in our lives.  The Bible is clear about “chewing on” His Word:

Psalm 119:97, “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.”

Psalm 119:15&16, “I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways delighting in your decrees. I will not neglect your word.”

Joshua 1:8, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

John 15:7, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

In today’s world, we hear the phrase, “chew on it until you get it.”  I want us to take heed to this phrase.  Let’s chew on God’s Word until it becomes a part of our daily walk.  There’s nothing healthier than a good chew!