You Are What You Eat

You are what you eat. I was reading this comic book, and it had a little squirrel lying on a psychiatrist's couch and he was just trying to talk to the psychiatrist, and he said, "When I realized that 'you are what you eat,' that's when I knew I was nuts." Well, our spiritual nutrition is so important. It helps set the stage for being a healthy Christian.

We live in a world obsessed with diets, fads, and nutrition. We strive to stay in shape, cut calorie counts, and burn calories through exercise. I remember working at the YMCA while also serving as a student pastor. There was one trainer in his sixties who taught what he called the "push-away" exercise. When people asked for help losing weight, he'd say, "Well, I want to teach you how to do this exercise. It's called the push-away." He explained that while most people think getting in shape requires push-ups and sit-ups, what they really need is to "push away" from the table. They need to avoid certain meals, stay away from certain calories, and lower their calorie intake.

We know phrases like "you are what you eat" and "garbage in equals garbage out." We know this in our heads, yet we continue to feed on things that might not be good for us. Nutrition is important for physical health, but even more so for spiritual health. As Christians, we need to exercise our faith and learn spiritual disciplines, but first and foremost, we have to think of our spiritual nutrition.

In this passage, Peter describes an appetite, a diet of the Word of God - something you can feed on to help you grow as a Christian. We grow spiritually by feeding on God's Word.

1 Peter 2:1-3 (NKJV) - "Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious."
 
Sometimes, you might encounter someone who says, "I'm so weak. I have no energy. I'm lethargic." If you ask what they've eaten, they might respond, "Well, I haven't eaten all week. On Sunday morning, I'll come and I'll eat just a little crumb here or there, but then I just don't eat any other time during the week." It's no wonder they feel weak and empty.

That same thing happens spiritually when Christians only engage with God's Word on Sundays. We bring our Bible to church, hear a sermon, attend a Sunday school lesson, maybe even a midweek Bible study, but then try to live our lives on that spiritual nourishment for the rest of the week. While this can provide great nourishment, it's not sufficient to help you be as strong as you need to be as a child of God.

Remember Matthew 4:4, where Jesus, when tempted by the devil to turn rocks into bread, said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." He wasn't suggesting we should literally eat the Bible, but emphasizing that our spirits need spiritual nourishment even more than our bodies need physical nourishment.

Jeremiah 15:16 echoes this: "Your word was found and I ate them, and your word became to me the joy and rejoicing of my life." Jeremiah isn't saying he ate the scroll, but that God's Word became his spiritual nourishment, just as bread nourishes the physical body.

Well, 1 Peter 2:2 says something similar. He says, "as newborn babes desire or long for the sincere, the pure milk of the Word that you may grow thereby." He's not diminishing milk. He's actually saying milk is good for you, and the Word of God can be spiritual nourishment for you, just the same way that a baby needs the nourishment of milk to help us grow as a Christian.

“Dear God, thank You for Your Word. I pray that I would crave Your Word just as much as I physically crave nourishment each day. I pray that Your Word would satisfy the deepest longings of my soul. It would be the joy and rejoicing of my life. Thank You, In Jesus’ name. Amen.”