Matthew 19:20-21
The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? 21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
There is so much talk of weight loss and health consciousness today. Self help books line the book shelves but yet they collect dust. I don’t hear about too many books on spiritual health, however.
Just looking around any given city today, it is easy to see that America’s citizens are overweight! A reader commented on a previous devotional on Thanksgiving saying that even America’s poor are overweight! Our country is obsessed with food and, therefore, obsessed with bodily exercise and diets. Our citizens are overweight physically and yet terribly underweight spiritually!
In today’s text, Jesus tells the young man that although he has kept the Law, to be ‘perfect’ he must sell all that he owns and give it to the poor. Jesus saw what was in this young man’s heart. The Lord could see what consumed this young man’s thoughts and his daily life … riches. The young man was ‘full’ with his riches and could not see his undernourished soul. He could not see that his riches were more important to him than total commitment to God. He craved his riches more than he craved spiritual matters.
The Apostle Paul told Timothy:
1 Timothy 4:8
I can diet and exercise all I want and it will benefit my body. However, Paul said that my exercising profits little. Paul isn’t saying that I shouldn’t diet and exercise but merely saying that I shouldn’t be more consumed with this than I am with walking with the Lord! What does profit a person is godliness – a desire to be holy as God is holy. (1 Peter 1:15)
Nothing will change me until I make a conscious decision to redirect my cravings to the One who can satisfy those cravings! Are you over eating? Try consuming your thoughts with God’s word rather than food. My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19) – the Lord cannot use me if I do not keep myself healthy. However, when I take that to the extreme and consume my free time with diet and exercise, I’m not allowing the Holy Spirit of God to teach me how to control my eating habits. I’m crowding out His desire to teach me with outside influences. As in everything in life, moderation is the key. If I am to be compulsive in anything, it should be following after God. I must keep my body, soul and spirit fed and maintained properly so I can be used of God and bring glory to Him.
Ephesians 1:17
Posted at Maranatha
Abraham
- JCPenny
on Nov. 16, 2011 at 8:46 AM