This morning I woke up, began to pray and journal, and then thought, “I should get some tea going.” So I went to the kitchen. Then I saw the raw vegetables that I was going to juice and thought, “I should do those now.” Truth is, I was hungry – I had food issues.
That took about 15 minutes. And then family members started waking up and there were details of the day to be hassled with. So I never made it back to the prayer room. But God did show me this interesting passage out of John 6.
I encourage you to read John 6. You think your picky teenager drives you crazy? As we zoom in on Jesus in this passage, he has more than 5000 people following him with food issues!
They were wowed by his miracles and followed him to the middle of nowhere and were hungry. So he did one more miracle and fed them.
And they loved him so much for it, “they were ready to force him to be their king” (same crowd that showed up with palm branches and yelled ‘Hosanna’ – I think their modern corollary is the Facebook crowd).
Later, when he debriefs his disciples, he says, “You want to be with me because I fed you… don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food.” (v 15-16)
God showed me through this passage that people have always had food issues. Yes, we struggle with gluttony and raise anorexic and bulimic kids. But human beings have always had a complicated relationship with their food.
So take heart. Yes, God wants you to fast. But he also feels your hunger and wants to feed you. He just wants to feed you what your soul needs and has been crying out for first.
We just finished our Monday worship time at the Adventures base. It was good to see everyone after the holidays. Yet I realized that some folks still had some broken spiritual residue on them from their times with their families. So we prayed over one another and prayed an affirmation of our identity in Christ into one another.
As you pray through your food issues, consider getting someone to pray the spiritual crud of condemnation and criticism off of you. God wants to get you going on his narrow path again in 2016!
Good word to begin the New Year.