What Are You Eating?

Over the past couple of months God has really been showing me how much our physical health compares to our spiritual health. He's been revealing to me the many different ways that they mimic each other. Your physical health being made up of physical things that you can touch, taste, see and feel that will make a difference to your physical body. And your spiritual health being made up of things that you think, obedience, attitude and consecration that will make a difference to your spiritual body. As God has been showing me these things I have wondered why I am just now seeing this. I have been involved in fitness for many years now, why haven't I seen this in this way before? And the answer to that was because I was spiritually unhealthy for years and refused to see what God was probably trying to show me the whole time.
When we look at ones physical health it is very easy to see on the outside if someone appears healthy. We can see if a person is overweight, too skinny or in good shape. We can look at the things they do on a daily basis that is causing them to be this way. We can see the foods they are eating that are good for them and the things they won't stop eating that are bad for them. And we can help them get into better shape. We can help them learn how to exercise right, eat better and do things to improve their overall physical health.
The spiritual health is also something that can be considered healthy, or unhealthy. And usually your lifestyle will also go along with how healthy your spiritual life is. The things you are putting into your eyes and ears, the places you go and the friends in your life are usually very good indicators of where you are spiritually. Just like with the physical health, spiritual health takes discipline and intentional changes to become better. And if you are not doing things on a daily basis to maintain that relationship with God, that spiritual healthiness, then it can go down hill quickly just like someone's physical health when they start making very unhealthy choices.
It's funny, because we can do things like not smoke, not drink and not do drugs and say we are healthier than someone else because we know they do do those things. We can hang out with people who are in worse physical shape than we are so we don't feel like we're in "that bad" of shape. And we can intentionally not go to the gym if we know we have let ourselves go so we don't have to face people who are in better shape then us. But none of those things are actually improving your health. They are just masking a problem. Well, don't we do the same things about our spiritual health. When we know we are not in a good place, don't we make excuses, point out other peoples flaws, shift our friendships to people who are on the same level (if not worse) than we are. Don't we avoid church when we have let ourselves go and we have guilt and shame in our spirit? None of these choices are going to improve your spiritual health either. They are just masking a problem.
Your good health, whether physical or spiritual, greatly depends on what you are doing to maintain that good health. What are you physically eating (good food or junk food) and what are you spiritually eating (things of the world or the things of God). The worst part about our spiritual health is we can sometime get away with hiding it from everyone before it all falls apart. Unlike our physical health, which can typically be seen, and then maybe a loved one or close friend would talk to you about it. Well, God/Jesus/The Holy Spirit are the close friends that are trying to talk to you about your spiritual unhealthiness, but are you letting them. Look at what you are feeding your spirit and ask yourself if this is going to promote good spiritual health, or bad? Is this going to bring me closer to God, or push me from Him? A trainer will have you do a food diary for a week to see how bad your diet really is, would you be willing to do a spiritual food diary for a week and let God show you how bad your spiritual diet is?
Just like an obese person can wake up one day and decide to change it all...you can do the same thing spiritually. You can leave your bad past right where it is, ask God to make a change in you, and start fresh today. If you had people in your life that just wanted to remind you of how overweight you used to be after you made a change, would you let them. No.....So once you let God start to do a work in you, don't let the enemy or people around you remind you of your ugly spiritual past either. It is between you and God...and once asked, it is forgiven.....and as long as you are doing everything He is asking of you, then you are on the right path. Your unhealthy "spirit man" is dead and gone. God says you are made new, so live each day like a new healthy spirit.
God, thank You that we can be made new. Thank You that we can step out of a very unhealthy "spiritual body" and into a new healthy one. Help us be discipline in our spiritual health and aware of the things that we are feeding ourselves. May the Holy Spirit be our guide and may we allow Him to direct and correct us into the place that You desire for us to be. In Jesus name, Amen