As I become more committed to exercise and eating right, I realize how often I fill my stomach with food that only starves me internally.
This happens to me regularly when I am traveling. If you travel like as well prepared as I do than your travel days may be a bit chaotic. I am sitting on an airplane all day only to land and go speak at an event. I finish speaking and jump back in the rental car and begin my 2 hour drive back to the airport. Midnight has come and gone and I am starving. Nothing is open except for a drive thru restaurant. I have to eat. I roll through the drive thru and grab a bag full of processed foods filled with bad fat and grease. It only takes me about 5 minutes to eat the fast food and my stomach feels full. Only one problem, my body is still starving. There was very few nutrients in that food that actually satisfied by my bodies needs.
This is exactly the same way sinful desires fill our immediate needs. Sinful desires are wrapped up in a false exterior. Those desires look healthy, appealing, and attractive to my immediate needs. Whether you are struggling with intimacy in your marriage, attention by loved ones, rejection by your children, or a lack of self-worth we often attempt to heal our pains through immediate desires. These desires, triggered by your circumstances, appear to satisfy the hunger but in reality they only result in greater sickness and need.
Instead of filling our minds and bodies with sinful desires we must starve our minds and hearts from these desires while filling our bodies with Godly truths
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” [COLOSSIANS 3:1-2] “And set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the higher things), not on the things that are on the earth.” [COLOSSIANS 3:2 – AMP]
Next time you experience the attack of your sinful desires reorient your mind on things above. Be prepared. Be full of Godly food. Feed yourself truths from God and starve yourself from the sinful impulses of the devil.
If you believe you will simply say no at your time of greatest weakness, you are fooling yourself. We train in preparation for temptation. Through our training and preparation we starve our minds from sinful stimulation and feed on God’s word, character, and truth.
Eat well today in preparation for the temptation of tomorrow.