'You are what you eat' apparently?

So. I don't know about you but I like food. So much so that whatever food you put in front of me I am most likely to demolish down to the last crumb. Yep but what can I say; no regrets. (Admittedly unless its the entire consumption of the unhealthy cupboard of food).

The foods I eat determine my physical health. I need food to survive, I need food to re-energise, I occasionally (maybe more than occasionally) look to food to raise my spirits (yes maybe it's sad but take me out for food and I'm sussed mate).

What exactly am I getting at?

On the whole: what are we feeding our 'spirits'? And how regularly are we feeding them?

Are we feeding our spirits junk? i.e. are we letting spiritual junk food feed our souls?
Are we feeding our spirits on a frequent basis?

Hold your horses - don't lose me yet! I will explain myself:

1. Are we feeding our spirits junk?

So what does it mean when we let spiritual junk food/unhealthy crappy stuff feed our soul?
I see spiritual junk food primarily as lies. And when we let lies feed our soul we live outside of truth. When spiritual junk food feeds us on a consistent basis we become spiritually malnourished; just as when we feed on literal junk food we put on the pounds (no disrespect) and our body becomes malnourished.

So what can we do?
For the spirit and soul I believe we need to be feeding on a diet of the "Word of God"; that is truth. We need to plant it in our hearts.
Whatever thoughts our heart feeds on our spirit becomes like. "You are what you eat"; i.e. you are what you (your thoughts) feed on. Our thoughts need to be planted in truth; we are chosen, loved, forgiven, special, family, unique, empowered etc, so that we are living lives built on truth. "...Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honourable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise." (Philippians 4:8 NLT)

When I discovered your words, I devoured them. They are my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God of Heaven’s Armies. (Jeremiah 15:16 NLT)

2. Are we feeding our spirits on a daily basis?

Don't know if its just me, but I quite enjoy/need my food on a frequent basis?! Without food I can feel weak, incapable, flat, tired, grumpy etc.
But how often are we choosing to soak in God's word?
How often are we feeding our spirits?
Are we feeling spiritually weak, incapable, flat, tired, grumpy?
Just as we feed our bodies on a frequent basis; we should be feeding our spirits on a frequent basis.
The Word of God should be sustenance to our very being; to our survival.

And do you know what? Just as eating that bag of malteasers, devouring a packet of walkers salt and vinegar crisps or, of course, defeating the almighty bacon sandwich raises my spirits; as does feeding on the Word of God raise my spirits; "I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!" (John 15:11 NLT)

So I challenge you to live in the light of truth; feed frequently on God's truth and plant your hearts in 'what is true, and honourable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable'.
If 'you are what you eat', eat the word of truth frequently.

"‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” (Matthew 4:4 NLT)


I'll keep you posted.

The perception of value

We live in a rapidly evolving society. We are surrounded by people telling us we should ‘be like this’, ‘act like this’, ‘achieve this’, ‘look like this’ etc. The list is ever-growing.

‘If only’, and ‘what if’s’ are constant companions of our minds. ‘If only I could just have this, then things will be better’…’What if I’d have done that differently, then everything would've worked out.’

Self-criticism is the constant companion of the mirror. Many of us don’t embrace what we see (let alone accept it!)

It’s a trap - it’s suffocating - it’s a lie.

It decreases our perception of our value, our self-worth.

I used to place my value on my achievement – don’t get me wrong, getting ‘good’ grades is great. But when it takes over – it’s self-destructive. I thought I had to be better. I thought I’d be accepted if I did better. I thought my value derived from what I achieved – it became draining – it took over.

Another big killer for me was (and still can be!) physical appearance. Many of us hate what we see. We can’t stand our reflection in the mirror. We place our value on how we look – and boy oh boy it can be demoralising, frustrating, stressful. How we look cannot and will never sustain us.

Why do we do this to ourselves? To each other?

I am now on the journey of looking to my creator for my worth.

• Our creator creates us as masterpieces. “For we are God’s masterpiece...” (Ephesians 2:10)
• We are a one-of-a-kind creation. “…He has created us anew in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:10)
• We were created for a significant, unique purpose. “… so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:10)

I take great comfort, peace, joy and freedom in soaking in God’s love – I don’t have to be anything but who he created me to be. You don’t have to be anything more than who you already are. EMBRACE who YOU are.

His love is present and he’s waiting to lavish his love on you.

We all have a deep soul hunger – we may try to fill the hole with earthly things – but the only satisfaction we will find for that is in the presence of God. Our value, our “wholesomeness” is found in him.

I love this quote from the book “becoming myself” by Stasi Eldredge ‘Our worth is not based on what we do, which life path we choose, or what we believe. Our worth is inherent in the fact that we are image bearers of the living God. Our worth is based on the fact that we are alive. We are human beings. Our worth is immeasurable.’

True freedom is flourishing in knowing and loving who you are.

I challenge you to journey into becoming yourself; see your immeasurable value and worth through the love of God.

I’ll keep you posted.