Spiritual food

​By Jennifer Hoyt
     Matthew 4:4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

     Psalms 37:3-4 Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

     Who here likes to eat? Raising my hand! I absolutely love food. One of the greatest disappointments of aging is losing my twenty-year-old metabolism that could handle anything I wanted whenever I wanted and not gain an ounce. I have a sweet tooth, a savory tooth, and a broad palate that appreciates all kinds of flavors. I’m not sure if I’d go as far as saying I’m a “foodie” but this girl likes to eat!
I think I shared in my last blog that God and I go on walks. Sometimes, I resist going on walks, especially in bad weather, but I’ve been making an effort. During my most recent walk, God unfurled a new, cool thing…

     I was praying, or at least inwardly monologuing in God’s direction, (we won’t dwell on the fact that I need to learn to listen more than I talk), and as I was walking along, I really just wanted to express thankfulness to God. The thought ‘feed on His faithfulness’ and ‘God inhabits the praise of His people’ was running through my head. Before I knew it, one thought leading to the next the way our brains do… God began unpacking this idea of spiritual food and also spiritual eating disorders. Since my prayer right before these thoughts was for some inspiration to share on this blog with you, here we go!

     Food. It’s such a central part of our existence, woven into every aspect of our lives. It’s cultural, integral to our daily routines, and a key element of every major holiday and celebration. Plus, there’s the simple fact that if we don’t eat (and drink), we die!

     When you look at the Bible, there are SO many references to food. For example, during their time in the desert, God provided the Israelites with manna. Some of Jesus’ miracles involved feeding 5,000 and turning water into wine. Before Jesus died, we have the “Last Supper,” where Jesus related His broken body to food and drink—a sacrament we partake in to remember His sacrifice. Psalm 34:8 says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him.” In John 6, Jesus says, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” And then, of course, one of my personal favorites, found in Matthew 4:4 where Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”

     I think one can logically conclude that just as our physical bodies need food for survival, our inner man, our spirit, also needs sustenance for health and survival. In fact, that is exactly what Matthew 4:4 tells us. Our spiritual survival depends on every word that proceeds or continues out of God’s mouth. This also means that God didn’t stop wanting to talk with us at the completion of the Bible. If that were true, His word wouldn’t be, as it says in Hebrews 4:12, “living and active”. We wouldn’t really receive revelation from a living text if the Holy Spirit had nothing to say.

     So, spiritual food… what is it? In the simplest of terms: God’s word. God’s Word is described as milk (1 Peter 2:2), meat (1 Corinthians 3:2), and bread (Deuteronomy 8:3; Job 23:12), and it is even sweeter than honey (Psalm 119:103).

     What’s really interesting (and initially a little off-putting, if you can follow my snarky brain) is when the prophet Jeremiah said, “When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, LORD God Almighty” (Jeremiah 15:16).
When I first read that, I thought, “Okay, so Jeremiah is a weird dude. He literally just munched a scroll and called it tasty. Forget the spoonful of sugar, Mary Poppins, Jeremiah’s got some delicious honey scrolls—line up, kids!”

     Jeremiah’s palate and my palate… do not relate. If there’s a dinner invitation to Jeremiah’s mansion in heaven, I might have to walk my fish or vacuum my gold driveway that evening. Although, I could send him a message asking what’s on the menu. If he replies with, “Please join me for honey barbecue scrolls,” I might skip the taste test, but I’d definitely spectate just to see how the scrolls don’t burn on the grill! I know, I know… heaven is a magical place.

     All snark and humor aside, I realized… Jeremiah was internalizing God’s Word. He was making it a part of his very being! Jeremiah is showing us that Scripture is not merely something to study or read; it is something to be “eaten” by God’s people because of its life giving benefits. We need to not only read the Word, but we need to ingest it so that the Holy Spirit can show us its meaning and application in our lives, which is where we get into the transformative power of God and is also why Jeremiah said it was his joy and his heart’s delight - good stuff (see Psalm 1:1–3).

     Did I pique your curiosity when I mentioned spiritual eating disorders? Me too. And as you read on, know that I’ve probably experienced most of these at different times in my life. So, if you identify with any of these categories, you’re not alone!

     Let’s look at some of the most common eating disorders in the natural and see how it translates to our spirit man/woman:
Anorexia nervosa is a condition where people avoid food, severely restrict food, or eat tiny quantities of only certain foods. Spiritual anorexia mirrors its physical counterpart. It happens when people avoid being nourished by God’s word or only accept certain parts of it.
An anorexic Christian is one that perhaps believes in God, but that belief doesn’t translate to being in a relationship with God. It’s the same as you believing that I, Jennifer Hoyt, exist, and maybe you’ve heard a few things about me, but we’ve never spent time and you’ve never learned about me first hand. Some call these types of believers “fire insurance” Christians, because their belief surrounds get-out-of-hell insurance, but there is no actual ongoing relationship with God. We all lead busy lives and sometimes our lives are too busy, and the days, weeks, and months march past, and we mean to spend time with God, we have good intentions, but we fail at establishing a routine of reading our bible, praying and relating with our creator.

     Other Christian anorexics go to church on Sunday and expect that to do the job for the entire week, even though our natural bodies wouldn’t fare so well if we only ate once a week! Some of us might not read God’s word, but we try to pray as we fall asleep. While that’s a start, our inner being is still starving.

     Other anorexics read only the parts of God’s word that feel good. Kinda like the kid that only wants to eat pizza, chicken wings, candy and ice cream. We know we should have a balanced diet with all the ‘food groups’, but we find taking in the Bible too complicated. There are too many places that offend us or that we would rather avoid because they contain hard truths that we don’t want to take responsibility for. For some, God is only palatable when He is His sweetest sacrificial self. The God of vengeance, war and consequences isn’t a God we want to know. Of course, until someone has wronged us, and then a ‘smite’ button might just come in handy.

     For the anorexic, when problems come our way, instead of seeking God’s prophetic word for our situation, we rely on worldly counsel or our instincts.
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    I’m sure there are many more examples, but in short, spiritual anorexia is when we avoid getting to know God through the life-giving nutrients of His word.

     Bulimia nervosa is a condition where people eat food and then purge what they’ve eaten. Spiritually speaking, a bulimic Christian is one that might take in the word of God, but they spit it back out before it can do them any good.

     If you’re anything like me and what I’ve experienced as a Christian bulimic, you’ve sat in church or spent time in the word only to be convicted by what you heard or read and then purged the discomfort as quickly as possible to return to your sin. The ole, I know what the Bible says about this or that, (fill in the blank) BUT... (insert your special circumstances, excuses, reasons or your pet worldviews). I know this person is married, but they married the wrong person and I really think God meant for us to be together. God will never contradict His written word. Adultery is adultery—run! The enemy would love to have us believe our situations are unique and an exception to the rule because the enemy is a jerk and his whole modulus operandi is to rob, steal, kill and destroy.

     Bulimic Christians are easily deceived by worldly morality. If it sounds good or appeals to our reason, it must be true. The world holds ideals like “love is just love” and “my body my choice” but a Christian knows the truth if they are in the word of God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” A person who has spent time in the word knows that Jeremiah 1:5 reveals that God knows us even before He forms us in the womb. Psalm 139:13–16 highlights God’s active role in our creation and formation. Exodus 21:22–25 prescribes the same penalty for causing the death of a baby in the womb as for murder.
 
     A bulimic Christian is not a hearer and doer of God’s word. There is little fruit, (you know a tree by its fruit, the fruits of the spirit are: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control), in their lives because, if you think about it, a tree must be well nourished and healthy in order to produce good fruit.

     Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), previously known as selective eating disorder, is a condition where people limit the amount or type of food eaten. A child with ARFID does not eat enough calories to grow and develop properly, and an adult with ARFID does not eat enough calories to maintain basic body function.

     On a large scale, Christian’s suffering with ARFID are modern day Pharisees. They are the snake oil preachers tickling ears with a doctrine that sounds good, but has no root in the transformative power of the kingdom. They use their knowledge of the Bible for their own benefit. They are the sheep in wolves clothing, who have a form of godliness, but deny its power (2 Timothy 3:5).

     God, through His word, is going to define our worldviews. We do not get to be selective. I once heard a fire and brimstone preacher say it like this, “Some of you are busy filtering and defining God through your worldview. Then you whine and complain that you pray and pray and don’t get any answers. It’s almost like God doesn’t exist. I have news for you—your God doesn’t exist. You made Him up! The real God defines Himself, causing us to shape and filter our worldviews through Him, not the other way around.

     What does an ARFID Christian look like in our smaller scale lives? An ARFID Christian is busy building a God in their own image kinda like you might design your next lap top. I like this and that, but not this... and if it could be more like that. We are grabbing sustenance from the world, too. ARFID Christians are filling themselves up on the daily horoscope, seeing psychics, embracing new age woo-wooism and playing with tarot cards. We have excuses about why it’s okay to smoke, drink, and to shack up before marriage. We do not guard our tongue. We do not guard our eye or ear gates and anything goes for us! Forget about the fact that they Bible says God hates Pharmakeia (pharma = drug) and that He calls it sorcery or illegal access into the spirit realm, nevermind our body is a temple, or that sexual sins are the worst in God’s eyes because we sin against our own body. Forget about the fact that horoscopes and all that nonsense is defined by God as witchcraft and when we partake in honoring demonic spirits, God calls it prostitution. Galatians 5:19-21

     In closing, I want to encourage you. If you’ve checked off some boxes under every spiritual food disorder, hey me too! We need God. We need His transformative power and the access point is through internalizing His word and allowing the Holy Spirit to bring revelation! His word is our sustenance. I think that is why when Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he used the words “give us our daily bread” because daily, not once a week or even occasionally, but daily, we need God’s life giving word (Matthew 6:11).

     For most of us, making a change is hard. We look forward to our morning coffee and the horoscope or a drink to close out the night. We can’t imagine life without social media and scrolling and it never dawns on us that its become an idol we place before God. No wonder we have no time for spiritual food. We are eating, just not from God’s word. Others of us struggle with body image, lust, anxiety...the list could get long here! Matthew 12:43-45 talks about kicking demons out and explains that after a spirit is gone it walks around the dry places seeking peace and finds none, it decides to come back to the place it was kicked out. The house (us, spiritually speaking) swept clean and unoccupied is an inviting space and the unclean spirit goes and finds seven friends and returns to take up residence. The final condition of that person is worse than it was at first. Why? Here is the application – if you’re trying to make a change, you can’t do it without God. God fills the empty space. The mons and his friends can’t take up residence in a space already filled and radiating God’s love. The simple truth is, most of us are spiritually hungry. We eat, just maybe not from the right source. If we want to make a change, we need to do it God’s way and we only find that through His word.

     There is a big difference between having a religion and having a relationship. Christianity as a religion is an excellent set of teachings and a correct philosophy, but it’s dead. Christianity as a relationship is where we get into a soul that hungers and thirsts no more! If you are struggling in some of these areas, ask for help! You don’t have to walk alone. That’s why you are part of the body. I’m here. Our pastors are here.

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