Divine Nutrition

Jesus said, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4

When I was working at FSU, my workout partner and good buddy went through a very traumatic time in his life. His girlfriend, who he had been dating since high school, suddenly broke up with him for another man without even a warning. My buddy was convinced he was going to marry this girl. He thought he had found a love that lasts a lifetime.

As you can imagine, this breakup saddened my friend deeply. In fact, he suffered a prolonged period of intense depression. During this time of depression, he had no appetite for food and no desire to workout. Once a paragon of physical fitness, he quickly became skinny and weak as he lost more than twenty pounds.

Although he was physically alive, he was emotionally dead. He became so distraught that he couldn’t even keep pace with me on our runs. I couldn’t believe that one of the top tri-athletes in Florida, and a man who could run a mile in under five minutes, was struggling to keep up with me during our runs at a slow seven minute mile pace.

His despair and anguish of soul caused him to lose his natural desire to hunger and thirst. I remember forcing him to eat PowerBars that I had in storage for the athletes that I trained. He was still alive, but it seemed like he was really dead. He was not the same person I had become so close to in many of our excessive training sessions.

In my fourteen years of being involved in ministry, I have observed that many Christians are like my friend after his breakup with his girlfriend. They are alive physically, but they are dead spiritually. They have lost their desire to pray, worship and feed on God’s word. Many of them crawl into church with their “spiritual gas tanks” empty, and wait for the preacher to shove the Word down their throat. Because of their spiritual malnutrition, these anemic Christians actually despise the very thing they need most.

What do you do when you wake up and realize that you don’t hunger and thirst for God?

My youngest son Noah is full of life and energy. He wakes up singing and he hits the ground running. It is a great thrill to be the first to get him out of his crib in the morning. Without exception, the first thing Noah does in the morning when his feet touch ground is dash for the kitchen. As soon as he arrives in the kitchen, he grabs his little bib and puts it around his neck. Then, he grabs his little eating chair and table and drags it towards the refrigerator while pointing to his favorite breakfast foods and reminding us to not forget the juice.

We are amazed at how much our little guy eats. His appetite is an indicator of the fact that he is full of life and energy. With a full belly, he is ready to conquer the day by putting his fingers on anything within his reach.

I am sure the majority of us start our day by eating or drinking. I am pretty confident that most people schedule their day around what they are going to eat. In other words, eating is not a random event for most people. It is a well planned and well thought out incident in our lives.

We all know that eating food is essential for maintaining health and sustaining life. America is so committed to eating that many of its citizens struggle with obesity. Unless we are fasting, unhealthy or dead, humans don’t go a single day without eating.

My goal in the next series of blogs is to make sure you understand God‘s word is as important to the nourishment of your soul and spirit as food is to your physical body.