Sep
6
Don’t Fill Up
Filed Under Devotional
As a kid, I often heard something millions of kids have heard over the years, “Don’t fill up on junk food before dinner!” It was annoying because it was right. If you fill your stomach with salty snacks or candy soon before dinner, you won’t have room for the nutritious food that Mom put on the table. Then, later, after you’ve digested the junk, you’ll find yourself hungry and badly nourished. So, it’s a double whammy of consuming junk that doesn’t do you much good and probably contributes to some problems and then missing out on the stuff that is good for you.
It was that familiar refrain from my mother that came to mind when reading this Proverb:
“He who is full loathes honey,
but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet.” Proverbs 27:7
If you fill up on the junk of the world, then you’ll have no hunger for Christ and His Word. Even though what He offers is so much better for you, you’ll have no room to take it in and digest it. It’ll be loathsome to you.
The man that denies himself, though, will develop a hunger and, then, a hunger for what will best nourish him.
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” ” Matthew 16:24
I even see a more subtle message in the Proverb. When you are appropriately hungry for spiritual truth, you’ll even take that which is a little bitter. You’ll take what’s good for you even though it is hard to swallow. If doing God’s will means taking less pay, moving to a smaller home, or doing something that’s not your favorite, it can be tough to accept. However, it is God’s will.
You need to be hungry for the best spiritual food for you and you need to be willing to take that which is bitter when it’s better for you.