Testing

Deuteronomy 8:2
Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.

This is one more great verse, not least because I feel rather like I have been led into the desert, if only for a few weeks. It cheers me to think God does whatever He does to humble me and test me in order to know what is in my heart. He wants to know whether or not I will keep his commands.
Verse 3 gets specific on the humbling process:
He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
I certainly have a hunger...for recognition, for certainty, for stimulation. I must accept that I can't live on those even if I have them, but on every word that comes from God.
Every word! That's why, even with the recent difficulties, I'm beginning to feel nourished in a small, secret way. I read my chapters in the morning, and I try to pick some verse to mull over during the day. Then later I encounter a heart verse. I love the Bible, and I have read and studied it for years, but I feel lately as if I am truly feeding on it more, making it part of me.