“Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.”
Isaiah 55:2, NIV
When you need to buy food you don’t waste your money on things that you cannot eat. You know what’s good for you and that’s what you buy. But when it comes to the diet of life – all the activities and interests on which we spend our time and with which we feed our souls, it can be a very different matter. It’s so easy to fall into the many traps that the enemy sets for us to eat his poisonous food and to keep us away from the richest fare, that will not only be a blessing for us in time, but in eternity as well.
I was shocked to hear that over a hundred million copies of one of the most perverted and pornographic books ever written, were sold within a few months of it coming on the market. I’ve not read the book and have no intention of doing so, but it’s clear from all the reviews and articles in the press that it is total filth. And now there’s a film of the book and people are flocking to feast their eyes on the most corrupting of images. The problem with the things we read and the things we see is very simple – we cannot un-read them or un-see them. Once having indulged in a diet of such stuff the material has become part of who we are.
Isaiah bemoaned the fact that he lived among a people of unclean lips – I wonder what he would say today at the tsunami of poisonous stuff that so many in the world consider a suitable diet for their entertainment? I can tell you that all this filth, which is swilling about society, is rotting the minds of men and women the world over. They are feeding on poison – it attracts the carnal nature, but it never satisfies – all it does is create an unfillable appetite for more of the same. People are spending their money on a drug which is depriving their hearts of any desire for God and slowly killing them.
There is an alternative – to feed on the living bread of God’s Word and choose to be satisfied with the things of life that are pure. Let your mind dwell on those things that are godly. Satan may tempt us with all sorts of attractive things – but you can be sure of one thing, if they’re from the enemy they will never satisfy and will always disappoint you in the end. They will form the surface of a very slippery slope which gets increasingly difficult to get off! Best solution – don’t start walking on slippery ground! And if you’re on it, get off it fast.
Prayer: I’m sorry, Lord, for the times when I have spent my money on things that I know will never satisfy my soul. I ask, Lord, that you will forgive me, cleanse me, heal me and restore me. I want to feed on the richest fare, which I know can only ever come from You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
