Eat, Pray, Grow
Like a husband who's been ignored, God became distant. The apostle James urges, "Come near to God and he will come near to you" (4:8). I can testify that the opposite is also true. Lonely for our former intimacy, I realized that just as I needed to decrease the amount of refined carbs I put in my body, I needed to increase my time with Christ, the Bread of Life for my soul.
I spent 10 to 20 times the number of hours reading books or talking with friends as I did reading the Bible or talking with God. Most of the Bible studies I attended were based on supplemental books—valuable, but not direct, exegetical study. What I got tasted good and, to some level, nourished my soul. But it was predigested—it didn't require my body, or my soul, to do the hard work. God designed our bodies to extract nutrition, phytochemicals, minerals, and other good things from raw food. Supplements are only supposed to supplement! Might our souls work that way too?
Next, I looked at what I ate. When I made a commitment to eat only healthy, natural foods, I weeded out much of the refined sugar in our diet. My 13-year-old daughter came to me one day, asking, "Where did you buy this orange?"
"Safeway," I answered. "Why?"
"It's so sweet," she said.
The oranges weren't really sweeter. They tasted that way because we'd removed everything from our diets that would give us a quick high—refined sugar and its diet dupes.
When my body and spirit are tuned only to recognize "sugar high" experiences, the natural sweetness and goodness of a quiet relationship between God and me goes unnoticed. Instead of demanding immediate (and positive) answers to prayer, great insights, or tangible blessings, I'm developing a taste for simple conversations, Bible reading that reaffirms what I've learned but doesn't necessarily lead to great insight, and long-haul trust without instant answers.
A friend and I recently reminisced how when we were kids, dessert was atypical—a looked-forward-to experience. I realized I needed to stop expecting dessert every day. Once in a while, God gives me a spiritual brownie—an immediate answer to prayer, a financial windfall, or a situation immediately resolved. When he does, I relish the sweetness for its rarity.
Just as we use the healthy food pyramid to know the types of food to eat, we can use Scripture to guide what we ingest spiritually. The apostle Paul tells us, "Let the words of Christ, in all their richness, live in your hearts and make you wise. Use his words to teach and counsel each other. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. And whatever you do or say, let it be as a representative of the Lord Jesus, all the while giving thanks through him to God the Father" (Colossians 3:16—17, NLT). This means that I spend regular time ingesting the message about Christ and let it fill my life. Sometimes I listen to the Bible or hymns or praise music on my iPod; sometimes I spend a few minutes reading in the morning or online over my lunch break, or I sing along to worshipful music.
Related Topics:
Busyness, Food, Spiritual Growth
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Average User Rating:
Catherine
Thank you!
Catherine
Thank you!
margo
Great insight.It helped me in all aspects of my life. Thank you sister.
heather
In response to Carol, I hear your heart and want to assure you that when you ask God to put someone in your life to be a friend that you can be accountable, he will! I have developed a wonderful relationship with a woman from my church and we have become so close and haven't even known each other for a year and come to find out- she had prayed for a friend and I was that person that had invited her to my home and have great fellowship with her. I too have helped her with her dietary changes as that is my profession! Just believe and God will give you the desire of your heart!
Carol Noller(Registered User)
This article really hit me where I am at. I also have heart issues starting with a heart attack at age 43. I seem to of struggled spiritually for the last 9 years as I spend all my time trying to stay healthy but leaving God out of the equation all to often and than wondering why life is so darn hard at times. I liked how the author tied everything into the healthy way we need to live and how we do not just nourish our bodies but also our very soul and we are not healthy until all of us is healhty, body and soul. It has given me some serious things to think about. I wish I had a friend to help be accountable to for this change I need to make in my life, but I do not think that will happen.
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