“What do you eat for breakfast?” I asked.
“I eat the same thing every day.” he replied.
My colleague had just presented me with a copy of his new book on health and nutrition. In light of this I thought it was time for me to defer to his expertise.
I confessed to him my neglect in the ingestion department. I tended to eat for taste and not for fuel. I didn’t feed my body well. I often didn’t eat breakfast; I would eat sporadically throughout the day; eat something sweet in the afternoon to give me some energy; eat a good dinner because of my wife’s faithful care; then eat some tasty snack in the evening.
I now sat across the table from my friend 20 pounds overweight. I needed help.
“So what do you eat for breakfast?” I inquired.
“My special shake: 2.5 cups water, 1 banana, ½ cup berries (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries), 1 tablespoon each of oat bran, wheat bran, wheat germ, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, ¼ tablespoon of matcha and 1 scoop of whey isolate protein powder.” He responded.
That shake, combined with eating less junk, and 30 minutes of mountainside walking 3 times a week, took 20 pounds off me and has kept it off for 2 years.
Our physical health is the result of 4 main components: what we eat, what we drink, how we rest, and how we move. Sure there are many other factors, but these are 4 key elements.
So what about our spiritual health?
Recently I embarked upon an intentional truth diet with my wife. We’re committing to memorize and meditate on weekly scriptural truths in an effort to increase our spiritual health. We’re focusing on truth related to God’s love and our identity as beloved children of God.
Reading Truth is good. Memorizing Truth is powerful. And meditating on Truth is profoundly transformational.
To meditate on Truth is to commit it to memory, and then chew over every word, every morsel of the passage. Meditating is an intentional extraction of the meaning the Spirit reveals. Meditating is a commitment to seek God’s revelation for all the depth of Truth the passage contains.
It’s a commitment to suck the marrow out of the Word.
This week we’re on Psalm 139:13, 14:
I am chewing each section of this over and over… “For you created my inmost being”; “You knit me together in my mother’s womb”; “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made”; “Your works are wonderful”; “I know this full well”.
How can you hate yourself if you understand the Truth of this verse? If God says we’re wonderful, if He formed us in our mother’s womb, then who are we to say we’re a piece of junk? God doesn’t make junk!
You are wonderful!
We’ve just started this diet of Truth but have enjoyed rich meals the 2 previous weeks:
Jeremiah 31:3
“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.”
Zephaniah 3:17
“The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”
We have the following meal plan laid out over the next 6 weeks:
Romans 8:14, 15
“For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’”
Galatians 4:6, 7
“Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.”
1 John 3:1
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”
John 15:9-11
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”
Philippians 1:6
“being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Romans 8:38, 39
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Join us – feast on Truth and live!