Spiritual Diet

 

 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (I Peter 2:2-3)

            According to studies, babies should eat every 1.5 to 4 hours – never longer than 4 hours (but according to experienced mothers, you never wake a baby just to feed it.) Experts also say that babies have to try something 12 to 30 times before they can truly decide whether or not they like them. This suggests that if we’re to be like newborn babies, if we are to grow up in our salvation, we need to feed from Scripture often – as often as 6 to 10 times per day, and we are to continue to do so even if we don’t think we like this stuff on which we are spiritually munching.

            I’ve been trying to learn how to eat more healthfully this summer. I have to admit, I’ve taken notes more than I’ve learned. I need to go back to the notes and apply them. Among the things I’ve learned is that I should be eating broccoli, spinach, and berries at least 3 times per week, each. I’ve also learned that adding fennel seeds to my diet would be a good thing. I’m working on it. Experts also say that we should exercise for an hour per day, including aerobic, weight-bearing, and stretching. We should drink 6 to 8 eight-ounce glasses of water per day. Physical health isn’t convenient, but I know from experience that being in decent physical condition makes much of life so much better.

            So where do we get the idea that we can ignore our spiritual health – our spiritual diet, exercise, etc. should not be similar. Why would emotional health, financial health, relational health – any sort of health not require good, pure, healthy input, exercise, and rest? And one of the things we need to avoid in all of our healthful eating is junk food. That’s stuff that “tastes” good but has little to negative nutritive value. We’re told to read the labels, to find out what is really in the food we eat. We should compare this food with that food and pick the one that is better for us. That’s not necessarily fun, but when we do that with the spiritual food that is available to us, the Bible always turns out to be the healthiest food out there unless someone messes with it, removing things or adding to it.