A ‘new’ study has suggested than an average person has over six thousand thoughts per day. Dr. Deepak Chopra believes the number is between 60 and 80 thousand… whatever! Sometimes I am momentarily paralyzed by more than ten options on a menu – then I just pick one and deal with any disappointment later! 🤣
Food is just food, I thank God for all that He provides and when it is tasty and delightful, I give additional thanks for that particular blessing. 💖 I am content that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word from the mouth of God! Yay! Food is not my idol. Eating food that is not to my liking does not cause any shame or regret; it does not cause me to feel the need for repentance. Hopefully, it teaches me not to eat that particular choice again.
And while, I did not intend to make food a focus of today’s reflections, I find several tangential thoughts worth exploring:
- Food and fellowship go together beautifully. Food is always better when shared with those you love. We are naturally more courageous to try new foods when we are around people we trust. (Just ask Adam! 😬) And be careful who you trust. Remember: Revelation 3:20 – Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. You never have to eat alone! 💖
- Food can be an idol. In today’s culture of immediate gratification and marketing, several thousand of those thoughts going through your mind will revolve around food. Eat this not that… Keto vs. low-carb vs. gluten-free vs. super-charged smoothies… Both the sponsored ads online and the road signs that are so prominently visible while we’re driving fill our minds with seeds of thought. So, while we might have been wrestling with anxious thoughts, maybe feelings of loneliness, unworthiness, or despair… BAM! A marketing tool succeeds where scripture does not. Off you go for alcohol where everyone in the advertisement is beautiful, rich, and happy. Off you go to Cracker Barrel where there is an old-fashioned feeling of family and close-knit community. Off you go to consume nothing but healthy shakes for a month or two, because bathing suit season is in sight, again. After all, everyone on the beach is beautiful and happy and at peace. Be careful, little eyes, what you see! Psalm 101:3 (CEB) I won’t set my eyes on anything worthless. I hate wrongdoing; none of that will stick to me.
- Idols in your life? Unless you are currently in a season of fasting, where you are prioritizing a specific timeframe to wrestle with God over a particular area of your life… then avoiding the opportunity to spend time with true friends and sharing a meal, may be an indicator of an idol in your life. Hebrews 10:24-25 And now I know why I’m writing this. 😯 I just did this exact thing last weekend. And while the food being served was not the reason for my declining the invitation, I can now see the lost opportunity in a clearer light. (Thank You, Lord, for Your honest, albeit uncomfortable, revelation. 🤦🏼♀️ Confess, repent, and move forward in faith.)
The study I am doing now during Lent includes a book from Tim Chester, An Ocean of Grace. Each day has an essay from some great writers across church history. I was stopped on Day 2 with the words of Catherine Parr, the sixth wife of King Henry VIII, in an excerpt from her book The Lamentations of a Sinner. These essays are primarily written by Christians that lived between 1500 and 1900 – no one writes like this anymore, LOL!
I desire to know God – but I struggle with all the things He’s created, that we’ve corrupted! I’ve found that it is easy to pretend I’m making progress, until I remember that the only progress made is when I allow Him to drive! I have to be singularly focused on Him and His Word and before I realize it, my mind is open and making connections almost too fast for me to hold on.
- “Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued, investigation of the great subject of the Deity.” – Charles Spurgeon
- The knowledge of God comes through revelation – not through speculation, not through imagination. If you just want confirmation of your own wisdom, you can always find someone to agree with you, especially today… just post it on social media, and someone, somewhere will like you and what you have to say. It may feel good, temporarily, but the warnings of Proverbs 27:6, Proverbs 26:18-19, Proverbs 16:28, Proverbs 17:9 teach us how to guard our hearts around others, while we try to put Romans 12:2 into practice. Be patient – it is His Grace that saved you… it is that same Grace that transforms you. (When you let it!) Meanwhile, Philippians 4:8 – Whatever is true, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.
- God’s Wisdom – in the middle of story of Job, there is an interlude stuck in between the dialogue of Job and his friends. Job:28 explores where ‘Wisdom is Found’. And in Job 28:28 – And He said to the human race, “The fear of the Lord – that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.”
- James 1:2-8 is worth sitting with for several hours! Kind of puts ALL of these together… patience, perseverance, avoiding distractions, etc.