Spiritual Malnutrition

Aside from world hunger, there is an abundance of spiritual malnutrition in our world today, and it is not limited to the world of unbelievers but also includes Christ's body of believers, His church. This is unfortunate but true. We are called to be the salt and light of the world but many of us are failing this very mission.

The task

My task is not to belittle or shame anyone by saying what I did above or below. Instead, it is a call to repent and get busy feeding one's spirit with God's word. The Bible is our source of truth. We do not worship the book but rather the One God who authored it.

Our task is to be daily readers of the word. Many will claim they don't have 20-30 minutes each day to do so, and yet an extra episode on Netflix, an hour playing video games, and gossiping on Facebook and other social media platforms throughout the day doesn't seem to many people how much time has been wasted.

I spend perhaps 10 minutes a day on FB, mainly posting encouraging or humorous memes, and pasting one of my posts here on read.cash to my Christian teaching page. I don't use other social media platforms because they are time consuming and addictive.

My early influence

I was raised in a dysfunctional home. My father was abusive. At the age of 13 I had to chase him from our home with a shotgun after he knocked my mother unconscious in a drunken rage.

Once he was gone, our means of support was also gone. I went to work as a janitor at an elementary school at age 13. I also took on a paper route - two jobs in all. We needed the money to pay the mortgage on the house.

One day my boss, the head custodian, invited me to his church. I declined, stating, "Well, boss, I went to church almost every Sunday for three years so I'm good."

He looked me straight in the eye and asked the following question: "Do you think your last meal will last you three years or will you have to eat again?"

Of course, I replied that I needed to eat to stay healthy and alive.

He turned and walked away and then spun around: "Don't think three years of Sundays was enough to feed and maintain your spiritual health, either."

Spiritual health

Our spiritual health needs to be maintained. Jesus wants us to be more like Him and we cannot do this if we do not feed our spirit and develop Godly habits. Bad habits and sin are our natural, fallen nature, a disease that eventually kills us all.

Feeding and maintaining our spirit includes praying, reading the Bible, practicing righteousness by being obedient to His words, and loving others.

We have to get into the word to get the word into us. "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you" (Psalm 119:11, NIV).

Did you catch that? When we internalize God's word we can recite it as the Holy Spirit brings it to our remembrance and use it to refrain from sinning. Note that Jesus never argued with Satan during the 40 days in the wilderness when Satan tempted Him. What did He do? He quoted Scripture!

Application

You know, all these years later I recall what my first boss said. He had planted a seed within my heart. People who came into my life afterward watered that seed and one day God gave the increase when I acknowledged Him as the "way, the truth and the life."

Dear readers, let us not make the mistake of believing that an hour or two in church every Sunday is enough to feed our spirit.

We certainly wouldn't believe a burger and fries or some rice and viands would last you an entire day. Even if that was all we did eat, we would certainly be malnourished.

What better reminder to feed our spirit than what Jesus Himself said: "It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4, ESV). Let's take heed of this and feed our spirit and become more like our Savior Jesus Christ.

Free images in this post come from https://pixabay.com/