Don't Go Grocery Shopping on an Empty Stomach
When you feel like you are starving, you are not thinking clearly. Your judgement is clouded your body telling you what it urgently needs. Grabbing for whatever immediately satisfies wreaks havoc on your body. You are not thinking about nutritional content or portion size. Some foods have high nutritional value and will sustain you for hours. On the other hand, some foods taste really good, but offer no value to your overall health.
Grocery shopping on an empty stomach opens the door wide for careless mistakes and regrets.
“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come buy and eat! Come, buy wine ands milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.” Isaiah 55:1-2 (NIV)
In this day and age, believers are joyful to know the truth about our God who offers salvation. However, when faced with challenges, they can quickly seek other means of comfort. Entertainment, food, people, and money occupy their attention. God is not quick enough for them, so they begin to doubt. They see worldly pleasures as shiny objects of instant gratification. There is always an effect to choices. Following the Lord leads to judgement by the world. Following the world leads to brokenness and disgruntlement. By neglecting the Creator, Christians lose their sense of identity.
God’s goal is to transform His people, not to pacify them instantaneously. God is a parent who wants His children to grow up to be strong and wise. Grace is the gift given which costs nothing to the one who receives it. Even though believers seemly “miss out on the fun” when they follow God, they are being molded like Jesus whom surpasses worldly glory. A gift sinful people do not deserve.
Ultimately God dictates what supplies souls with nutritional value. Running to God with worries, doubts, fears, and disappointments will lead to health. God does not always automatically remove pain and suffering when prayers are petitioned, but God always replenishes His children with love and comfort in their growing pains. Suppressing pain and hiding from God will only drive His beloved people into the ground.
“Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.” (KJV)
Biblical instruction is there to be a clear guide to rise above all the pain and suffering in life. Righteous law is to be obeyed in order for humanity to draw near to a perfect, loving God. The Omniscient knows when His truth has been tampered with and been made artificial.
“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,” 2 Timothy 4:3 (ESV)
The world claims to know it all. People are *supposedly* self sufficient at finding happiness within themselves or materialism. Christians know true joy can only come from pressing into an intimate relationship with the Lord; a relationship offering clarity like a well-lit path. God has also gifted free will to chose His ways or not. Neglecting God causes a constant need for a substitute which is less than perfect-ultimately an addiction. Emptiness. Emptiness is what prompts people to chase after the unfulfilling. Emptiness is a vulnerability that causes us to briskly reach out for what first catches our eye. Waiting until you are in a vulnerable place before you get help leads to foolish decisions. Pain is one way God gains the attention of the stubborn. Sometimes wandering off and end experiencing agony can be a reminder of the importance of safety.
“ When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:20-23 (NIV)
Don’t tho grocery shopping on an empty stomach, you will chose junk food, induce a tummy ache, and rot your teeth out.