‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven.’
John 6:51 NIV
We all know that diet is important. Diet can play a huge role in how healthy we are. We’re often told the foods we should eat more of and the foods we should eat less of. But we also need to take our spiritual diet seriously. Jesus said: ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.’ Just as what we eat influences our physical health, what we’re feeding on spiritually also influences how we act, think and behave. When we focus on feeding ourselves spiritually, we grow spiritually. So what are we consuming?
Do we spend our time watching reality TV, reading gossip-filled magazines, listening to music with explicit lyrics or comparing our lives with others on social media? Are we focusing only on the physical food we’re eating? In the Old Testament, we’re told that ‘man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord’ (Deuteronomy 8:3 NIV). We need God’s Word in our lives. We need to be consuming His Word if we’re going to be spiritually full and spiritually nourished We need to spend time feeding on the Bible, conversation with God and with other Christians, worship music, teaching or books.
It doesn’t mean that we can’t watch TV, go on social media or listen to music that isn’t classed as ‘Christian music’. But what it does mean is that we need to be carefully looking at what we’re consuming and the effect it’s having on us. And it means we need to be building time into our days to feed ourselves spiritually as well as physically.
