Healthy Spiritual Choices

A wholesome diet and regular exercise are fundamental to good health.  Being discerning about what and how much we eat has a far greater impact than mere outer appearance.  Quality nutrition helps our bodies grow, repair, boosts our immune system, aids digestion, and has many other benefits.  Exercise strengthens muscles, burns fat, increases flexibility, and is good for the heart and brain.  Our attention to diet and exercise is voluntary.  For the most part we make the decision to go for a walk, eat vegetables, limit our intake of processed sugar, drink more water, or avoid alcohol.

Knowing food is more or less healthy - or honestly not healthy at all - does not mean making these personal decisions are easy.  It is hard to restrict ourselves when it comes to diet, and it can be difficult to maintain motivation to exercise.  Sometimes we are determined and dedicated to meet our goals, and other times we have no goal except to eat what we want at the time.  This difficult task of balancing our lives for optimum health physically shows the challenges which we face spiritually.  What we eat and drink is often far easier to monitor and control than what what we take in through our eyes and ears from this world we live in.

No one can force you to drink whiskey when you are alone in your room at night, but images which stir the flesh can flash across your screen.  Profane language and cursing can fill our ears through shows on TV or videos.  The problem is, we are passive players in the process.  To eat you must first pick up the food, place it in your mouth, and choose to swallow it down.  Social media, TV, and the internet brings a stream of potentially foul material we weren't looking for.  There are countless things we see and hear which which are not agreeable to our new nature in Christ.  Granted, there are times we do not have a choice in the matter.  But let us not deceive ourselves:  much of the time we do.  We can turn off a device, we can walk away, and we can throw things out.  We are not at the mercy of this world to tell us what we should see or listen to.  That is God's rightful place.

If food or drink we consume has gone bad, our bodies will grow suddenly ill.  Our bodies are created by God to purge out contaminants and to be cleansed from within.  When a person watches smut, reads filth, hears profane speech, or is exposed to what stirs the flesh to fantasise and sin with their body, it has a negative effect on the health of the soul - even as a diet high in saturated fat and sugar is bad for the heart.  Binge drinking of alcohol is hazardous for the health of a person and affects his or her ability to make good decisions, and going on a sinful "bender" of looking at sensual images is troubling to body and soul.  There are no health benefits whatsoever to drunkenness, and there is only suffering and sorrow awaiting those who willingly expose themselves to what lures them to sin.

What we eat and drink has an impact on our bodies, and what we see and hear affects the way we think.  Indulging the flesh by eating too much leads to a temporary stomach ache, but indulging the flesh through what we see and hear wounds our souls.  These inner wounds do not heal on their own but only through faith in Christ expressed by repentance and obedience.  As much as depends upon us, let us monitor our intake - not just of food and drink - but of what we willingly expose ourselves to.  When you scroll, what are you looking for?  Let us be discerning of what we seek and make decisions to honour God rather than satisfying the fleeting curiosity of the flesh which is intent on bondage and destruction.  As a man thinks so he is, and as we make godly choices with what we see and hear it will have a most positive impact on our spiritual health and vitality.  The choice is yours!