Spiritual Health — Part 3 Healthy Spiritual Eating– Soul Food
(Click here if you missed Part 1, Losing Weight Spiritually or Part 2, Every Day is New – Start Over!)
Do you remember science fair projects? Were they exciting highlights of your junior high experience? Not for me! From the initial daunting assignment, through the tortuous weeks of planning, constructing, and documenting a project, to the final dreadful day of standing behind my tri-fold display while lab-coated judges walked by asking questions and marking clipboards, I always hated them! (Hard to believe that I ended up with a degree in engineering, right?) But, like it or not, science fair projects were required through junior high at my school. So, armed with a World Book Encyclopedia and constricted by a tight budget, I usually slapped together a haphazard, rickety construction that looked ridiculous and didn’t work, but had an amazingly redeeming lab report.
One year, I made what was supposed to be a se
ismograph out of a round salt box covered in paper, spinning on a knitting needle, with a pencil on a string hanging above it. My innovative twist was that I used a windmill to power my seismograph! Wind power was rather cutting edge energy technology for the time; however, I am not sure why I thought the windmill would withstand an earthquake to continue to power the seismograph.
That same year, someone at my junior high made a homemade Van De Graaff generator! This amazing project was the star of the science fair, causing everyone (including the lab-coated judges) to crowd around the large sparking sphere and watch static electricity make someone’s hair stand on end.
However, most of the projects were like the one that was displayed next to my tipping windmill and stuttering seismograph. It was a simple experiment with house plants. Maybe you have seen a project like it?
The student chose several plants of similar height and starting health, then subjected them to various environments. The first plant had a good amount of sunlight, water, air, and fertilizer. Then, each of the other plants had all but one of the 4 variables. The plant that was healthiest at the end was, of course, the one that had it all– nutrients, water, air, and sunlight.
Similarly, our bodies need the right kinds and balance of nutrients to grow, thrive, and be healthy. We have nutrition guidelines based on scientific research to help us make the best choices for nourishing our bodies. We need regular food intake of the right kinds and varieties to give us proper nutrition. Lack of even one vitamin, like vitamin C, can produce dreadful illness like scurvy which can even result in death.
Isn’t it interesting, then that the Bible has many food analogies for our souls as well?
Jesus spoke of spiritual food in John 4:31-34
Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
Here, he mentions doing the will and work of the Father as his spiritual food. Also, after fasting for 40 days, Jesus was tempted by the devil to turn the stones into bread and feed his body. Jesus replied:
But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4
Jesus elevated spiritual eating above physical eating.
If we want to be spiritually healthy, we need the right spiritual food. What, then, is this soul food? The Bible uses four food analogies to help us picture the food for our souls.
Milk: I Peter 2:2 “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation” Other translations render this the “milk of the word”.
The picture here is that new believers, like newborn babies, crave the nourishing, life-giving food for their spiritual growth–the word of God. Infants eat very often, sometimes every couple of hours, but can only handle a limited diet of milk.
Meat: Hebrews 5:12-13 “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”
The milk for new believers here is contrasted with meat for mature believers. If you are feeding your soul properly, you should progress from that easily digested milk to more dense, tough topics that require more work and chewing to process. Here, the people being spoken to had been believers for long enough, yet they weren’t ready for the meat. Their spiritual diet was not healthy. Notice the phrase “constant practice” in this verse. Just as our bodies need fed daily, so our spiritual food must be constant for our growth.
Bread: In John 6, after miraculously feeding the 5000 with a meager 5 loaves and 2 fishes, Jesus uses the apropos analogy of bread for spiritual food. In verse 27, he challenges those following him to not seek another miracle with earthly bread, but to seek “the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you“. Jesus’ Jewish listeners immediately thought of the miraculous manna, bread sent by God from heaven to the Israelites in the desert, as food for eternal life. Jesus answered them, in verse 35 with “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” Jesus is the eternal bread of life, sent from heaven like manna, satisfying our hungry souls forever.
Water: In John 4, Jesus, in speaking that familiar passage to the woman at the well, states “whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Just as Jesus is the bread so our souls will never hunger, Jesus is the water so our souls need never thirst.
Our spiritual food then, is the Word. The Living Word, Jesus, and the written word, the Scriptures, are the nourishment to keep our souls growing and thriving in this sinful world.
As we strive to improve our spiritual health, let us evaluate our spiritual diet. Are we feeding our souls on the living and written word of God? Are we progressing from milk to meat as we mature in our faith? is our spiritual diet sporadic, or a constant practice? Can we also claim the words of Job….?
Job 23:12 I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.
With Joy,
Kathleen
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photo credit: Toronto Ontario ~ Canada ~ Ontario Science Centre ~ The Ball That Makes Your Hair Stand Up” via photopin (license)