Christian friends,

May I “write frankly” to you? I initially began this blog with a lengthy introduction, and 5 paragraphs later, I realized it would be more useful to speak straight. So speak straight I will. I want to talk about our intake. For this blog post’s usage, let’s define intake as what we consume on a regular basis; what we take into ourselves, either mindlessly, habitually, addictively or intentionally. We are naturally built consumers. Another word we could use is worshippers. God made us needy creatures. We need an average of 8 hours a day of sleep to function. We need food at least 3 times a day. We need water even more often and in larger quantities than we need food. Our naturally needy rhythms point us to a God who is our daily bread, our Sustainer, our Provider, the Source we are designed to depend upon. But it is not our physical intake I want to focus on. It is our spiritual intake.  What do we take in for our spiritual nourishment?

If you’re like me, you may have spent little time thinking about where your spiritual nourishment comes from. Perhaps you’ve received enough training to know you need time studying God’s words, but your quality time with God is consistently inconsistent at best. Prayer time is infrequent and short, and full of requests for your day to go better and circumstances to ease. Your time with Christian friends is okay, but it’s certainly not iron sharpening iron, striving hard to follow after Jesus together, asking hard questions and loving each other fiercely toward your Savior and those He came to save. You like the sermons you hear on Sunday, but by Tuesday, any application you wanted to carry into the week has fallen off the table. Certainly you haven’t “intentionally” strayed from God and good spiritual nourishment, you tell yourself. However, neither are you passionate for Jesus, tasting the goodness of God in your daily struggles and joys, and eager to spread the fragrance of Christ everywhere as a disciple of Jesus is commanded.

This is a serious business. Literally, not to be too dramatic, because God is perfectly clear in His word: this is life and death. We are all on a death trajectory toward eternity being punished justly for our sins, and God, not wanting anyone to perish, sent us the most wonderful gift in the world: His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life. God then placed that good news in the hands of 120 followers, then gave them the Holy Spirit, and they were then equipped to fulfill their calling to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that Jesus has commanded them. Because they obeyed, I’m part of God’s family! So are millions of others throughout time. And God’s not done saving people! He is so patient, wanting all to know Him! We Christians have the same charge as our first-century brothers and sisters: to make disciples, to spread the beauty of Jesus everywhere. Personally, I have seen how entertainment, our cultural priorities and norms, and my sin have blended together to keep me inactive in God’s kingdom. And not just me. This seems to be a common tactic of our enemy. If he can’t win us to his kingdom, he’ll do everything he can to render us useless and impotent in the kingdom of God. Then we will do him no harm, but perhaps even do him good.

This is war, friends. We know who has won the war; we’re just fighting out the end battles until our Commander appears. How do you want to be found by Him when He appears? I guarantee that every one of you who has the Holy Spirit of God in him/her wants to be found fighting, working,  investing what God has given you for the good of His kingdom and purposes, and not your own. We will regret every time we chose entertainment over Jesus’ mission. We will regret our passivity. We will regret wasting our time focusing on making ourselves comfortable instead of being overwhelmed by the glory of God in Jesus and boldly going in His name, by His power, to tell the world the good news that Jesus came to save sinners.

Is Jesus your first love? Do you believe to your core He truly everything you need? Are you tasting and seeing that the Lord is good? As I have done, have you forgotten your God? Have you left your first love? Have you replaced him with other good, but unworthy things? If this is striking chords in your heart, and you have left your first love, and want to move from your passivity and enter the battle, first let me urge you to get on your knees right now and confess to the Lord whatever it is you have loved more than Him. Whatever has captured your time and attention and love. I would so prefer you do that rather than read the rest of what I have written. Go to Him! He loves you! Forgiveness is already yours in Christ. God already knows your heart. His conviction is truly a gift, so we may leave its clutches through the power of Jesus who has risen from the dead and defeated sin for us, SO THAT we are freed to obey God through His power! If you don’t yet hate your sin, but you want to, ask him for hatred of your sin, so you can cast it aside and cling to Him.

Then let me ask you this hard question that as a personal trainer I would ask my weight loss clients: take a look at your daily intake. Spiritually, look at what you regularly put in front of you for 1. entertainment, 2. comfort, 3. distraction, 4. mindless activity, 5. social media, 6. sustenance. What are you taking in? What is your “diet”? Another diagnostic question to ask in this current climate: how much time do you spend on your phone or in front of your computer unrelated to work each day? According to Shona Murray in her book Refresh, in 2013, women spent an average of 12 hours a week on social media alone, with an average of 150 check-ins on their phone a day. Let’s ask ourselves: what is the first thing I look at in the morning, and the last thing I do before I go to bed? Where do I spend my free time? What do I consume on a regular basis? Where do I go when I’m sad, angry, discouraged, or hurt?

Take the time to log what you are taking in. Remember, we all consume. We all worship. The question is who or what are we worshipping. I don’t mean to equate consumption and worship, but their relationship by nature is closely intertwined. You spend time and attention with who/what you worship. You will receive nourishment (whether it be poison or life) from who/what you worship.

Now look at what you’re consuming. What is it? Do you see any patterns? Any commonalities? How much, dear Christian friend, are you taking in the sustaining, life-giving wisdom and words of God? How much are you taking in worldly entertainment or wisdom, or just plain distraction? Does your spiritual diet nourish your relationship with God and help you grow in Christlike-ness, or is it malnourishing?

Whatever we take in is what will come out of us. I will have nothing good to offer anyone if I don’t soak myself in God’s word with His Spirit illuminating truths to me and changing me from my fleshly self. I won’t have God’s agenda unless I make it a practice to constantly set mine aside through regular repentance. I won’t love the people God put in front of me to love when I’m distracted by earthly pleasures or issues which have no bearing or weight in the eternal glory of God, and are not worthy of my time and attention. Simply put, you and I will miss out on living the abundant, fruit-producing, kingdom-building, disciple-making, Jesus-following life of good works God has prepared for us if we do not set aside our idols and our entertainment for the sake of Jesus’ name. He poured out his life so we could have ours. Would it not be an utter waste if we took His gift of life, paid for by His blood, and held onto it so we could build a comfortable life? No! May it never be! May we be moved to the very core of our being with the understanding that were it not for our beautiful Savior giving up everything He had, suffering God’s wrath in our place, we would be lost. Eternally lost. Dead in our sins. Alone. Without God and without hope in this world. May we remember our state without Christ, and our blood-bought sonship in Christ! May God’s love and grace overwhelm our hearts so that they overflow with gratitude and loving affection toward Him! May we begin to love what He loves and hate what He hates, so we can do good with our small breath of life we’ve been given!

I don’t want to waste one more minute. Will you join me in leaving the mud puddles for a holiday at the sea? Will you leave the foolish, momentary pleasures for the incomparably beautiful, everlasting, glorious ways of God? You don’t have the power to do so on your own. But praise be to God, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you!

He can do it. Ask Him.