Eating is a popular thing to do. I like to do it. I do it at least 3 times daily (sometimes more). We all need food to be healthy in this life and to be able to have the energy and strength to serve and love God. The way we eat, or don't eat, shows how devoted we are to being healthy physically. If we eat healthy, get all of our vitamins and nutrients, but if we don't we can have some terrible health problems.
Our media and our culture here in the United States has tried to fill our minds with pictures of what the ideal person should look like. The person that is attractive and beautiful is one who is "skinny" and not overweight. This has led to a lot of problems. People (especially women) who feel like they are not meeting the ideal picture that our culture gives them of how they should look, start to feel too self-conscious, look at themselves as fat, and this leads them to starving themselves and developing eating disorders so they can get back to the ideal weight. These eating disorders are dangerous. Let's look at two of them for a moment because my goal today is to show us that these eating disorders have spiritual counterparts.
Anorexia: The Physical Disorder
Anorexia is a serious, potentially deadly medical disorder characterized by self-starvation, eventually leading to significant energy and nutrient deficiencies, cardiovascular problems, bone problems, and muscle and organ wasting. About 10-20% of people (most women) that suffer from this disorder will die because of the complications it brings.
Bulimia: The Physical Disorder
Bulimia is an illness with recurrent, compulsive episodes of binge eating followed by self-induced vomiting and/or purging with laxatives. This disorder is also very dangerous. It casn lead to stomach and esophagus problems, dental problems, and death in about 1% of cases.
Don't these eating disorders seem terrible. The kind of complications that they bring can be devastating to the body. There are so many studies going on that are trying to learn about these disorders and how to prevent them. Schools are finding ways to educate young people about these disorders and their dangers.
THE SPIRITUAL COUNTERPARTS
We may understand how dangerous they are. But unfortunately, it would surprise me if the majority of Christians suffer from one of them. (In a spiritual sense)
Let me explain: What is our food spiritually? It is God's word. It is described in the scriptures as something that we need to hunger for, it is described as meat and milk. It is as sweet as honey. I'll give some more references shortly But how often do we look at the scriptures as something that we must feed upon if we want to be healthy spiritually? That is why I am convinced that there is a spiritual counterpart to these eating disorders, and many Christians have suffered from them, including myself. The enemy has been incredibly successful in spreading it.
So lets take a look at both of them from a Spiritual Perspective:
ANOREXIA
Everyone can get Spiritual Anorexia. This spiritual disorder has led to countless families falling apart; and countless Christians falling away from the Lord. So what is it?
Spiritual anorexia is an aversion to reading the Scriptures.
We have all seen tragic pictures of starving children in third world countries. Many of them don't have the strength to even stand up. Anorexic Christians are the same spiritually as those children are physically. Why? They both lack nutritious food!
The words of Jesus in Matthew 4:4 make the point about the scriptures that "Man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."
Deuteronomy 32:46-47 says: "Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe—all the words of this law. For it is not a futile thing for you, because it is your life"
Do we really believe this to be true? How often do we feed on the scriptures?
One of Satan's greatest tactics that he uses to keep us ineffective is to keep us out of the scriptures. It wouldn't surprise me if this is his primary goal in approaching Christians. He is relentless in giving us reasons and temptations not to read God's word. He wants us spiritually anorexic.
We often say things about the scriptures. We say we hunger for the word of God, that we love it, we treasure it, we respect it. It is a guide for our feet and a light to our path. That is all fine and good, but how much do we actually feed on it. How often do we read it and study it?
Satan doesn't care about how much we say we hunger fo, revere, and love God's word. As long as we are not feeding on it, he has already won.
We would never think of skipping a meal or 2 each day, but why do we so easily make the decision to skip a meal spiritually? There are many weeks that my spiritual meals on a daily basis are hit or miss. Then I wonder why I am falling into temptation and feel weak and luke-warm spiritually.
We need daily reminders of who God is and what He is capable of. We need daily reminders of what is right and wrong so we can face our battles equipped. We need to strengthen our convictions and evaluate ourselves and where we stand in the faith.
BULIMIA
As dangerous as Anorexia is physically and spiritually, there is another disorder that is afflicting Christians that is even worse from my perspective.
This disorder is caused by not using the most important bible translation. Let me explain. Do you know what translation is the most important one? The best, most important bible translation that we must have is the translation from the written page into your life!
You may not be spiritually anorexic. You may read and study the bible every day. You may be a scholar. But if you are not applying it, you have spiritual bulimia. You may feed yourself full of scripture to your hearts content, only to vomit it up a short time later by doing things that are contrary to what you studied. You completely waste all of the knowledge that you gain of God's word if you do not apply it.
There are Christians that hear about how we need to have our minds and bodies holy and pure in a sermon or see it in God's word, and then in their spare time fill their minds with most obsene things such as secular music filled with ungodly lyrics, movies and television shows filled with violence and sexual immorality. When Christians do this they get calloused to seeing sin and get to the point that they approve of it and even do it.
We feed ourselves with the scriptures that say we need to be patient and not let our anger lead us to sin, only to go home or to work, vomit up the word of God, and then act impatiently and sin in anger. This does not please the Lord. We hear sermons on how to make spiritual things our priorities so we aren't unfruitful for God, then we vomit up what we learn and continue filling our schedules with what we want to do. We hear sermons on prayer and what hinders it, but we vomit it up and make no changes.
We need to realize that gaining bible knowledge is not our goal as Christians. We should NEVER stop there. We need to apply the word to our lives. James says that we need to not only be hearers of the word, but DOERS of the word! If we do not obey the word of God, we are deluding ourselves into thinking that God is pleased with us! The knowledge that we gain about the Bible becomes useless.
My brothers and sisters, there are plenty of unbelievers that know the Bible very well but are still lost! Their are Bible scholars that are not Christians. Knowledge is not the goal.
We need the heart like Ezra. Probably the most well known verses in Ezra: "For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it" (Ezra 7.10). This should be us. We not only should set our hearts to study, but make up our minds now that we are going to obey, whether it is comfortable for us or not.
Both of these Spiritual eating Disorders, just as their physical counterparts, have serious consequences. If you are not getting the spiritual nutrients that you need from God's word, and not applyig it's truths, you will develop (if you don't them already), heart problems. Only when we let God's word penetrate our hearts and lead us to action can this be prevented. In all cases (100%) if these disorders go unchecked in our spiritual lives, they will kill us!!
So as your spiritual nutritionist for today, I give this advice. Make it a goal to have a steady diet of the bread of life; the spiritual milk of the word of God. Feed upon it, allow it to nourish you. And most importantly, allow it to change your life! Let God change you and mold you as He wants you to be.
