Okay, the title says a lot but not all… We are living in a time of spiritual famine and emotional pain. People walk around today knowing that something is missing from their lives but they can’t identify it. They crave release from negative emotions but don’t know how to gain it. They refuse to admit that they long for God and His healing power. We are hungry for Him, but instead of looking inward to diagnose the problem, we fix a giant meal and eat until we’re miserable.
Joyce Meyer’s chapter, “Curb Your Spiritual Hunger” from Look Great, Feel Great makes me think of my past holidays when all the family was around. Sometimes this was the most stressful of all days in the year. The day that everyone came expecting a huge wonderful dinner and usually that is what each one went away remembering. During the get together, family members stifled their emotions and popped food into their mouths to avoid conflict and confrontations. The positive comments swirled around food but only negative thoughts took place about this person or that person sitting across from them at the dinner table. What on earth makes us eat to remedy bad situations?
We hurt and we eat. What a dumb thing to do! Instead we should be running to God instead of the refrigerator or cabinet. Joyce says this takes a long time to form a habit of running to God and I agree. We have to self-talk to remind ourselves that God is what we need. It is often our spirit that needs nourishment but we often feed our body instead. No wonder we get fatter.
We’re busy and we eat. We live in a world of distractions. There isn’t any time to concentrate on our spirit’s health. Our lives are all about work, making a living and moving up in the world. This is the world’s mindset. Our busy schedule of work and worldly entertainment leaves no time for attending special church services, spending quiet time alone with God, reading His word, praying and listening for His voice. Our spirits are hungry for Him. As Christians, we can even get caught up in attending and doing every little thing in the church and still neglect to nourish our spirit because we become exhausted in the doing of things just like Martha did.
We’re lonely and we eat. Not only do we neglect time for God in prayer, meditation and Bible reading, but also we neglect our fellow Christians. There isn’t any time allowed for fellowship. We might send emails and leave texts and voice messages but that doesn’t take the place of eye-to-eye, voice-to-voice, and hug-to-hug contact. We’re lonely and we eat. So what is there to do except to binge, lie to our selves about what and how much we eat, think about food as a stress buster, or fill the stomach when our heart is what is hungry?
We need to replace this bad habit of neglecting to feed the spirit by prioritizing and making time for God and other Christians. Then we can experience fullness on another level. Our joy will then be full and running over. This is the benefit of nourishing our spirits and who doesn’t need more joy?
Joyce says we need to stop lying to ourselves and identify the areas of emptiness that drive us to eat. When we continually do things like eat too much food or eat foods that aren’t good for us, we feed depression and discontent. This is a vicious cycle. Once we honestly discover these triggers in our lives, we need to ask God to help us. It doesn’t even hurt to say “No” out loud when faced with the temptation to eat. Then remove one bad habit and replace it with a good habit. Replace every negative vibe with a positive one. We should look around for support from others who are willing to help us or even get involved in programs that are already established. Last but not least we need to be patient with ourselves as we learn and grow in a new direction. The saying that Rome wasn’t built in a day has some merit but the whole truth is it didn’t fall in a day either. It took time on both ends, so we need to give ourselves time to nourish our spirits. There are things about our “Rome” that needs to go. Let’s strive to replace the negative with positive reinforcements.
And remember this from 1 Corinthians 1:3-4 …God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others... 6 Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation!
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