The Bible says that:
“ .. food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.”
1 Corinthians 8:8 NIV
However your food choices can go a long way in determining the length of your life on the earth. There are all kinds of food attacks going on in our world today. While some are about healthy food diets, others are about the unhealthy ones. A lot of people including some nice Christians are dying daily, because of their inability to be able to discern what is good and healthy for their body system.
They are eating and drinking certain things just because those food items are delicious, sweet or nicely packaged. But we do know that just because something tastes sweet or delicious, does not necessarily make it healthy for the body. People are dying daily because of their unhealthy food choice habits.
Eating or drinking certain things does not make anyone more spiritual than the others. Food is for the stomach or the body only, and the stomach is for food (1 Corinthians 6:13). However we will all have to give an account one day before the Almighty about the attention and care, that we are giving to the body with regards to our eating and drinking habits.
Food does not make us get nearer or closer to God. You are not more spiritual than others just because you are eating certain things. But eating the right kinds of diet can prolong your life on the earth. That’s why it’s important to always pay attention to the types of food that we are eating.
The only food that will get you closer to God is the spiritual food (the word), which comes from God’s mouth to you. Moses reminded the Israelites as they got prepared to step into the promised land, about how God had fed them in the wilderness; by saying:
“So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”
Deuteronomy 8:3 NKJV
We do need to eat food to be able to stay alive on the earth; but what we are eating is not enough to keep us alive and healthy on the earth. You may be very good about keeping a healthy and balanced diet lifestyle. But that however may not be enough to protect you from getting sick. God’s word is what can protect you from the attacks of the devil to make you sick.
When the Lord fed the children of Israel with what they were not even familiar with in the wilderness, they never got sick as a result of eating manna and quails. This happened to be the healthiest food diet that the world had ever seen, and will ever see. Mortal men ate of the very diet that the angels do eat (see Psalms 78:23-30).
Moses reminded them that as a result of eating this heavenly diet:
“Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.”
Deuteronomy 8:4 NKJV
They never had to worry at all about gaining weight. Their physique was healthier and stronger than when they left Egypt. Their physical strength was phenomenal, to the extent that they were always prepared to fight their enemies. Their enemies could never outmatch their strength and skills in battles. The skills that they showed in battles points directly to the soundness of their minds, as a result of what they were eating in the wilderness – a heavenly diet.
When we as Christians will give our top priority to God’s word above what we are eating daily, we will begin to see how His word can nourish our physical bodies also; because God’s word is heavenly manna for us today. There are some Christians who will give their top priority to the stomach, instead of giving it to God’s word. That’s actually misplaced prioritization for us as Christians. And these are the very people who are often falling sick.
Jesus once visited the house of Mary and Martha. Mary had chosen to sit at the feet of Jesus, feeding on the word from His mouth. But Martha (her sister) was more concerned about the kitchen business.
There was nothing wrong in taking care of the guests in the house; but her priority was wrong. She was doing what would had been natural for certain Church women in our world today to be doing also.
But it got to the point where Martha became so troubled that, her sister had not come over to help her in the kitchen. She decided to confront Jesus with her insensitivity to her situation, of being left alone in the kitchen to cater for everybody. But she ended up getting the surprise that she never anticipated from Jesus:
“But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.””
Luke 10:41-42 NLT
Mary had discovered the most important thing – feeding on God’s word, which could never be taken away from her. Mary had her priority right. She had placed God’s word above and over the choice of caring for the stomach.
Food does not give us eternal life. God’s word does. God’s word gives us the real life (the breath of God), which no good or well balanced diet on this earth can give us. If you will receive God’s word into your heart, and let it digest through your spirit man to renew your mind, it will bring healing to your body and restore you back to health; so that you are able to be doing what you could not do before.
Every word that proceeds from the mouth of God gives us good health. It nourishes your spirit, soul and body while making you stronger to fulfill God’s will on the earth. God’s word is good food for your spirit, soul and body.
That’s why Jesus said to Satan during His temptation with food in the wilderness:
“It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”
Matthew 4:4 NKJV
You will be surprised to find out that the healthiest food diets on the earth today are not even palatable. Such diets won’t even make you to salivate, but they are very healthy for your body. And the truth about them is that the more you get acquainted and comfortable with eating them, the better they will become palatable to you, and your taste will become more acceptable to them. Your taste has a way of adjusting to what you are used to eating and drinking daily.
As Christians God doesn’t want us to be junk food masterminds. You are of immeasurable value to Him. You are very precious in His sight. You were never created for junk foods. You are the special apple of God’s eyes. The only things that junk foods will give to your body are more cholesterols, which will eventually make you weak and sick in the body.
But God wants you live longer on the earth working for Him to save lives, healing this sick world and delivering the captives, who are being oppressed by the devil. That’s why your ability to cultivate a good and healthy diet habit is so important to Him. And you can’t have good health if you are not eating good and balanced diets.
It’s not all that glitters which are golden
However we do live in a world that is so glittery and superficial. It’s not everything which glitters like gold, that is really golden. Just as it’s not every food diets that are around you or which you may be eating that are really healthy for you.
A particular food diet may be your favorite, but you do know that your body keeps telling you that it’s not healthy for you. The more of it that you are consuming, you have often noticed that, the faster you are becoming weaker in the body and getting sicker.
The world around you is made-believe. You live in a made-believe world that is so vague with all kinds of deceptions and lies everywhere.
That doesn’t means that in the midst of all that glitters around you with the food choices, that there is nothing real and healthy anywhere. Whatever is healthy is golden to your body. And you as the precious jewel of God Almighty are supposed to be eating that. He had created you with the ability to make the right and healthy food choice in an untrustworthy world. And your choice of food diets will go a long way in prolonging your life on the earth or reducing it.
God has immeasurable jewels in the heart of those who are seeking Him daily. And because you are so precious to Him, He has endowed you with the ability to stand out and shine in an evil and crooked world. You can stand out in His righteousness and in His power always, in making sound and wise judgements about your diets. Christ’s righteousness will always causes you to shine, like God’s precious jewel in the midst of a crooked, unhealthy and corrupt world. As Paul said:
“that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,”
Philippians 2:15 NKJV
The food that you are consuming doesn’t make you righteous. Your faith in God’s word does. And God’s light shines brighter and brighter within you, in the midst of the crookedness going on around you, with all the unhealthy food choices everywhere. Your judgment in making the right choices about what to eat and drink is sound, because of His righteousness shining through your heart to illuminate your mind with the wisdom of God.
Whatever goes through your mouth into your stomach should be making you healthier and stronger, instead of being weaker and sicker in the body. God treats the food that you are eating daily like the treasures, which He has blessed you with. You must see every meal that you are consuming in such a light before God.
Just because you are praying every time over your food before eating it, does not give you the freedom to be eating what is bad for your health (1 Corinthians 10:30). It is never an excuse for eating bad food.
Yes, it is true that Jesus said about the believers in His name that:
“they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.””
Mark 16:18 NKJV
But Jesus was not making reference here to the food or the drink, that you do know within yourself can make you sick; but which you are deliberately consuming. This scripture text does not give any Christian God’s grace and blessing to be eating unhealthy foods.
What Jesus was alluding to here is the fact that believers in His name, may be offered something deadly to eat or to drink, without being aware of the inherent danger in it; by those who are seeking to do them deliberate harm. Jesus was saying here that the deadly things can never harm or affect such believers in His name at all.
There is a supernatural protection for those who are doing the work of God’s Kingdom. The Almighty has divine protection for them always (see Psalms 91). If the enemy tries to harm them unknowingly to them, the Almighty God will supernaturally deliver them. This was what Jesus is talking about here.
The above scripture text is not in any way a license to be eating unhealthy foods, while claiming the protection of Heaven for ourselves. Some had died because of their own foolishness in being misguided to interpret this scripture text, as a permission from above for unhealthy food diet habits.
There are however certain things that are permissible to you as a Christian, but which may be dangerous to your body personally. Others may eat the same things without any risk to their health, while your own body will react irrationally to them. A lot of Christians are dying because of their habits of eating certain things, that are unhealthy and bad for them. This ought not to be happening at all.
You must be able to discern the tricks of the devil through the foods, that are being sold in the open market to you; but which can make you sick.
You are better off if you ignore such food items. It won’t do you any harm to resist the temptation for such diets, that you do know are harmful to your health. Don’t let the intense desires and peer pressures around you, push you as a child of God to be consuming, what you do know from the depth of your heart are of no good value for your body.
There are certain things that you were used to eating and drinking when you were younger. But as you are aging your body will start telling you to stop eating them.
Those intense cravings from your youth will tell you to keep on indulging in them. But you do know that whenever you are eating them, now that you are older your body does reacts to them differently. Are you going to obey those youthful cravings within you? Or are you going to pay attention to the changes, that those diets are bringing to your physical body?
The world is sicker today because of the unhealthy food choices of the people who are living in it. Many people have died so far of different health complications during COVID-19, due to their unhealthy eating and drinking habits especially during this pandemic.
Beware of those food advertisements
We can all however agree that the advertisements for food on the internet and on the television, are engineered to get at people’s attention and make them buy or eat, what they wouldn’t normally buy or eat. That’s what advertisers do. They are working day and night to make you change your mind, about certain things that you are not eating or drinking.
They will tell you all kinds of things to push you into making the decision to eat or drink, what you don’t really want to eat or drink. Beware of those advertisements. You do know that those foods are not healthy for you. Stay away from them.
And just because you do like the advertisement doesn’t necessarily means that, what is being advertised is healthy for you. The advertisers are using the same tactic that the devil uses, to tempt people to sin against God and against their own bodies.
In the same manner as the devil will advertise temptations into your thought patterns, and through the images about a particular sin so as to tempt you; advertisers will do the same things so as to make you change your mind, about what you are eating and drinking. That’s what they do for a living.
But it’s not everything that is being advertised that is necessarily good for you. Be very careful with those advertisements.
Once a person falls into a temptation the devil continues to aggressively advertise the same sin, through all kinds of thoughts and images, so as to get at the feelings of that sinner, until that sinner is fully entrenched in the sin. And by that time it will have to take the hand of God, to deliver certain people from their unhealthy food habits.
That’s how certain people do get themselves into living all kinds of lifestyle patterns that they do know, that they don’t really want to be living. They took the bait and fell into the sin. They may want to come out of it right now, but they are seeing how deep the devil has gotten them entrenched in their ungodly habits.
The same tactic of the devil is being used around you daily to entice people to be consuming the things, that are making them weaker and sicker in their bodies. Just because a particular food item is acceptable to everybody around you, does not means that it is healthy for you.
The Bible gives us an example of how dangerous this was for the men who were with King David. The devil had advertised the food that was making them to salivate, so as to get these men to eat what they were not supposed to had eaten.
They did a foolish thing which eventually affected their physical ability to fight the Lord’s battle. They ate the food that they were not supposed to had eaten, and became weak and feeble in going out to war.
The exploits by these men with King David are highlighted for us in 2 Samuel 23:8-39. They were mighty men of war. They had fought valiantly and won many battles for the Lord. But on one occasion their eating habit hindered them from going out to fight for the Lord.
In the same manner there are many wonderful Christians who had died before their times, because of their unhealthy food habits. They left many things behind unaccomplished on the earth for the Lord. Dreams, visions and other great aspirations of their lives which were never fulfilled, due to their untimely deaths, that were the direct consequences of their bad eating and drinking habits.
These mighty men of war with David weren’t different from anyone of these wonderful Christians. The devil however used the same old tactic with food to take the lives of these Christians away before their due times.
In writing about the thing which weakened the strength of his mighty men in battle, David said:
“Some were fools; they rebelled and suffered for their sins. They couldn’t stand the thought of food, and they were knocking on death’s door. “ Lord, help!” they cried in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress.”
Psalms 107:17-19 NLT
These people became weaker and sicker in going out to battle for the Lord, because they got themselves tempted with “the thought of food”. They became sick to the point of death after eating what they were tempted with. They eventually realized how the devil had tricked them with food to kill them. They then cried out to God, and He saved them, the Lord healed them and delivered them.
God will heal you when you call upon Him after admitting your mistake, as a sin before Him and repenting of it. He is a merciful and kind God, who is full of compassion and love towards you. But eating or drinking what one is not supposed to be eating or drinking can kill, especially when it becomes like an addiction in life. That’s why you don’t want to go back to eating and drinking such deadly things, after the Lord must have healed you and made you whole.
If the food is unhealthy to the body, then it is poisonous to the body. And by eating or drinking in such a manner of being addicted to it; the health condition of such people has been compromised. Their health situation has gotten worse. Many are dying because of self food poisoning. They are poisoning and killing themselves, because of the cravings in them for unhealthy food diets.
The Bible warned us about persons who are taking the Holy Communion in an unworthy manner:
“Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.”
I Corinthians 11:27-32 NKJV
By being unable to discern between what is healthy and unhealthy, many have become sick and some had died. If something is unworthy then it is of little or no value at all. Foodstuffs that are consumed in an unworthy manner can pose a big risk to the health of those who are consuming them. That was why many were dying in the Church at Corinth for taking the Holy communion in this way.
It’s interesting to note that the Bible points out clearly here that, these people would first of all become weak in the body. The energy that they had to do exploits for the Lord was drained out from their body.
And this is the tactic of the devil with unhealthy food choices today. The eaters and drinkers will become weaker and weaker in the body, before falling sick and eventually dying. It’s a gradual process during which many opportunities were actually made available for them to change. But they never changed their habits and died.
Since this had been the standard within the Church to prevent people from eating the Holy Communion in an unworthy manner. It is therefore right to suggest that many had died today also, because they had not listened to the voice of the Spirit of God in their lives.
The Lord who lives in them must had warned them several times to desist, from their bad eating and drinking habits. But they continued in this behavior until death finally took them away, and back home to be with the Lord. It’s evil for anyone to approach the Body of Christ (Holy Communion) in such an unworthy manner.
The mistakes of these early Christians for us today serves as a great lesson. They were nice Christians, and just like any other nice person today they had made bad choices. No one is perfect but Jesus alone. That’s why nice and committed Christians can make mistakes also, because they are human. And sometimes they can make grave, silly and bad mistakes. But we can all learn some lessons from their mistakes and live longer in the body for the Lord.
Be careful with what is being advertised for your consumption. The devil has many things that are being constantly advertised, to tempt you into sinning against God and against your body. God expects a lot of care with this issue from us as His children.
Your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit. God lives inside of you by His Spirit. We must be good caretakers or stewards of it. The Lord wants you to live longer for Him. As He had said:
“My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
Ezekiel 37:27 NIV
Your body is the Temple of God. Honor God with it by not yielding it to the devil, for what is being advertised daily for you to defile it with unhealthy food diets. Live longer in your Holy Temple for the Lord. Start by making smarter and wiser choices about your diets today.
