March 18th - God Wants me to be Alert, not Entertained by Satan's Seductive Lullaby

How does God want me to eat? 

Alertly. 

Huh?

In the Bible, God gifts us with two options, enabling grace to power through the day He has made for us with His work on earth to accomplish, and His Rest.

Satan offers us a tempting, almost irresistible third state of living: awakeasleep, whereby he successfully lulls us into inactivity.  Unproductivity.  No more good to the Kingdom of God than a rock in the front yard.  Well, even less so, because the Bible says if we don’t, the rocks will sing His praises.

The food coma was (is) such an ingrained habit of my life I almost don’t recognize it, or notice it at all.  It’s just there.  Totally normal.  Unalien.  Unalarming.  Like the same wedding photo I’ve walked by for years, it doesn’t stand out.  It’s been there as long as I can remember.

You know what I’m talking about.  The sugar rush that plummets and then I need a nap.  The caffeine high that energizes then crashes so I need to take a mom “time-out.”  The overeating that leads to sluggishness of brain and body.  Eating in such a way that necessary idleness follows.

So then, where do I turn when the coma is descending?  Probably the TV, or a novel, for escape and entertainment.  I’m a reader and there are certain series I’ll turn to for my escape and literally, in the middle of those, I’ll look up at my baby who needs a diaper change and realize this is the first time I’ve seen her, actually SEEN her, all day.  Sure I’ve gone through motions, this isn’t the first change and she’s been fed.  But my brain and my heart are somewhere else altogether.

Or I used to be the person who had the VCR programmed just about every day for something, some series I was committed to watching.  I knew the characters in and out, had lines memorized, saved the good episodes to re-watch, found the spoiler alerts on the internet.  What an investment of my time, energy, and thoughts into fantasy!

Guilt overwhelms me when I wake up from my fiction slumber, having been wooed and courted by the enticing, fabricated world I put myself in, and actually SEE my kids.  They are growing up so fast, and I missed it, whatever part of that day or week or month I went through motions with them, awakeasleep, shortening up prayers at bedtime so I could get back to my show, or book.

Can you picture it?  Can you picture my head on a demon’s lap as he strokes my hair and hums Satan’s seductive lullaby, and I purr with contentment in my sluggard lethargy. 

Back to food, living in the pattern of gorge, then “rest”:  The devil wants me feel that unfulfilling fullness, to crave it desperately, to desire it zealously.  He wants me sluggish and inactive so I’ll run (haha, more like waddle) to the couch, flip on the TV and see more commercials, more seeds planted, images of good food that will “satisfy” me right back here tomorrow. 

And then a pattern is set.  Eat, escape, eat more, escape more, and all the while allowing “entertainment” to numb my mind until I am an Ineffective Christian.  Not a threat. Satan may as well leave me alone, I am doing just fine in my Snuggie with my remote.  (The absolute sidenote here is how much of the entertainment fills my head with thoughts that are absolutely against God’s Word on top of it all?)  My body is full, fat, lethargic, weak, heavy, incapacitated, without endurance.  My mind if filled with immorality and the world’s best pitches at unconditional love.  I’m not running a race.  I’m not even watching the race. 

So, back to square one, God wants me to be alert.  The opposite of awakeasleep, going through motions.  He wants my best. 

“Now it is hightime to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than we first believed.  The night is far spent, the day is at hand.  Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.  Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.  But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and more no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”  (Romans 13:11-14 NKJV)

“Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ…”  (Pause: the Cross = “whoever wants to follow Me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me”) “…Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is their shame.  Their mind is on earthly things.  But our citizenship is in heaven.  And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables Him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.”  (Philippians 3:18-21)

The flesh enjoys awakeasleep, it temporarily feels nice to indulge in food and then be whisked away from laundry/dishes/diapers.  But the Spirit wants us to be On, alert, and ready for the work He has for me.  The day of salvation is at hand.  We are and I am not to be living in this zombie state, satisfied with my own salvation, pampering my flesh on my journey towards Heaven. 

As my mom says, “Get to Heaven and take as many with you as you can.” 

Not that I need to start going door to door or whatever – but I’ve got these kids God has entrusted me with, and rather than worry about what Dr. Whoever is going to save tonight, (who am I kidding, I could care less about who he’s gonna save, I’m wondering who he’s gonna kiss) I need to be actively bringing them up in the ways of the Lord.  I cringe when I think my kids might look back at their childhood and remember mom with her Nook and not mom in prayer.

So the answer to the question, How does God want me to eat?  He wants me to fuel my body for THAT purpose - to eat properly to sustain energy; to exercise regularly to strengthen my body and increase my endurance; to enter into His rest, not wallow world’s rest – For His Glory and for the Furtherance of His Kingdom.