The Stuff I Am Made Of

1 Peter 2:2,3 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

I recently joked with a pregnant friend, suggesting that she had it easy as she only had to carry that extra weight around for a few months, whereas I had to carry it for years. She was too kind to say it, but I could see the look in her eyes. You do not have to carry it. You have chosen to. You are what you eat and you have chosen to eat too much.

The reality that struck me in that moment involved more than just my dietary choices. I am what I consume, in my diet and in my life. If I feed on a steady diet of that which my flesh desires, I cannot be surprised when I am a creature of the flesh, addicted to that flesh.

Peter says I am to live on God like a baby lives on milk. If I have tasted that God is good, then I am to consume him daily. I am to eat and drink him as my spiritual life depends on it. I am what I eat and if I live on God, I will grow into what He desires.

Just as an infant will physically die without frequent milk, I will experience destruction and death in my life if I do not fill myself with God. We see evidence of this all around us. Families and marriages are wrecked by that with which we choose to fill ourselves. We feast on a steady diet of drugs, porn, pride, anger, bitterness, and self-obsession and then we act surprised when we reap the consequences. We are what we eat and if we consume destruction, we will surely carry the weight of that destruction. If we feed on a diet of filth we cannot stay clean.

I am not saying that you will have an affair or end up in jail from watching soap operas. I am saying however, that all of my destruction can be traced back to little indulgences that I tolerated as I found them to initially be harmless. I need to ask in all things, Does this draw me closer to God or closer to self?

I need to examine what I am putting into my mind daily. Does my TV watching draw me closer to God or closer to envy, malice, lust, jealousy and greed? Does my time on the computer spur me on to prayer and meditation or am I tempted to look at destructive images? When I insist that I can watch certain movies without really being affected by the sexual content, I am lying to myself. I cannot escape the God-ordained reality that I am what I eat.

So, in my daily pursuit of God, I need to insist that I feed on God instead of the desires of my flesh. I need to read, pray, and meditate on God’s word. If I want to leave behind the destruction of my flesh nature, I need to stop filling myself with it. I need God like a baby needs milk.