Ever think about the food you eat? Are you mostly eating what is good for you or just for good taste? The food we consume determines our health and the condition it will be in a few months or years from now. What about our spiritual condition? Is it constantly fed with God’s Word or the world? There is no middle ground of being fed with both, it will either be God’s Word or not. Every day, we make this choice of what we allow in or not. Today, we will look at some examples and God’s Word to help us better understand this concept.
To help illustrate this, we will use the example of food and diet. If you were to bring in two football players and you told them they need to stay in shape to be good players, you would expect them to keep their word. However, one player eats and takes care of himself poorly while the other makes initiatives to be healthy and strong. Which one will have better results? The one who strives to be healthy will have better results because he is aware of what he needs to do to be healthy, strong, and ready to play. He paid attention to what he needs to do to achieve the results he wanted.
Let us look at this in a spiritual concept. What are you allowing in your life? Does it help you draw close to the Lord or further away? Even something that appears good can be a snare to your soul. As Christians, we should be careful of what we allow in our lives. We will know what is good or evil based on discernment. 1 Thessalonians 5:21 says “Test all things; hold fast what is good.” Only God can give us discernment to know what is good or evil if we ask Him. If we are spiritually weak, we can be easily deceived into believing something is good when it was evil instead.
So what can appear as a snare? In the spiritual world, it is anything that takes your focus off the Lord and has your heart’s desire. These things can include entertainment, friends, activities, work, etc. While these things may exist, we have to be careful that they do not take a higher position than they need to. The Lord must come first before anything else in your life. If we do not reverence the Lord in our life, other things will take His place and the devil can have his way. He will always try and find a way in if we allow him. On our end, we must always be on guard to protect ourselves from the world and all its lusts (look at 1 Corinthians 16:13).
Let us look back at the food example. In the natural, we need to eat the right nutrients to be strong and healthy. If we do not, we cannot expect the body to perform well and be strong. If we eat only junk food, how can we expect to have good results? In a similar way, if we allow the world to come in our heart and we love the world more than the Lord, how can we expect to show God’s fruit and His character? These fruits include “…love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control…” (Galatians 5:22-23). These characteristics will not come out of a heart that does not have the Lord in it. Whatever is in the heart, will show up on the outside. If we follow and obey the Lord, He will show up on the outside whether it is by word or action.
So if we are not close to the Lord and we are clinging onto the world, what do we do? 1 John 2:15 states “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” If we love the world, we do not love the Lord. We must shake off the world and all that entails if we truly want to follow the Lord. Once we do, we need to fill ourselves with God’s Word and spend time in prayer. Once we do and we are consistent, God will start to show in our life. You do not need to tell others that Jesus is in your heart, people will see it. This will not happen overnight but it will show up when you become more faithful to the Lord. Today, let us be aware of what we allow in our heart and let Jesus be seen today and forever!
Thought for the week: Is your heart’s desire only for the Lord? If not, what can you do to be sure that only the Lord and His Word lives there?