Our pastor said on the pulpit yesterday : It is only when our spiritual state is fed and sated, that we can enjoy ourselves without fear of feeding the flesh.
I have a friend, a widow in her late 50's, retired and very rich. She loves to go for expensive holidays. Every year, she'll have at least 5 to 8 vacations overseas. Last year, she went to Turkey, The Balkans, England, China, Bali Indonesia just to name a few. I've lost track of the places she went this year, but I know she just came back from China last week, and will be going to Taiwan next week. I get tired just by thinking of her whirlwind vacations.
It's all very glamorous. But somehow, somewhere between England and China, the 'pearl' has lost its lustre. No, she didn't get bored, not yet anyway. But it suddenly dawned onto her that it's just another day, just another place to visit. Nothing to look forward to anymore. She just keeps on taking vacations, but it seems to me, empty vacations, not meaningful vacations. She no longer feels contentment. She just has to go everywhere around the world. It has become more like a goal, and vacations have become a religion to her. But again, no contentment. Her spirit is not at peace. Her home is like a hotel to her, a place to stay when she's........well, home.
~~When we enjoy ourselves, even with the simplest act of watching tv, if our spirit has not been fed with the Word, we will watch one programme after another, till past midnight at times, because we keep wanting more. Will we feel contented the next day? Probably not. We'll be too busy keeping sleep at bay during work hours, and get irritable when things go wrong. But when we reach home, we'll switch on the tv again, and the same cycle repeats itself.
~~When we indulge ourselves by playing computer games, if our spirit has not been fed, 1 hour of zapping aliens will turn into 5 hours of 'killing spree'. Will we be contented? Probably not, as our spirit will be in too much turmoil after all the zappings and killings for the past 5 hours. We'll probably take a short nap, and a quick bite after the nap. Then back to the computer again to repeat the zapping and killing process.
~~When we go shopping, if our spirit has not been fed, we'll end up overspending and falling into the 'impulse purchase' trap. Will we be contented with our purchases? Probably not, as we'll be too busy trying to balance our paychecks with our credit card payments! That is, till our next shopping spree, when we'll conveniently forget about our paychecks and credit card woes, because we need to pander to our 'wants'.
The list goes on. Alcohol, cigarettes. It's always the case of I'll just have one. And one will never stay one. Without a 'fed and sated' spirit in control, the flesh will rear its ugly head again and again, and in the end, we'll end up as addicts, hurting not just our spiritual state, but our physical state as well.
When our spirit is not fed with God's word, we will feed our flesh. When we feed our flesh, we step into an endless cycle. A sinister cycle. The flesh will never feel satisfied. We'll keep wanting more......and more.......and more.
Hence in a nutshell, feed our spirit, not our flesh. It's only safe for us to enjoy ourselves and indulge in our whims when our spirit is fed. For it's only when our spirit is fed that we'll be able to truly enjoy ourselves and feel genuine contentment.
And when our spirit is fed, we will never become addicts.
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