August 4th – Proverbs 4: You ARE What You EAT

“They eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.” – Proverbs 4:17

We are fed by our works. What we do in life is the sustaining force of our being. If we do evil, we feast on wickedness. Doing wickedness is nourishment and sustenance to our base, carnal nature; our flesh. The Bible refers to it as “the bread of wickedness”. Bread is a real food, capable of sustaining a person and keeping them alive. When we do wickedness, we nourish the old man, our old nature. We keep it alive and sustain it.

Jesus spoke of His works being food:

“Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something." But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?" "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” John 4:31-34

Jesus was sustained in HIS life by doing the will of the Father. Doing the will of the Father was the spiritual food of Jesus. To nourish Himself unto righteousness and holiness, Jesus DID the will of the Father. Jesus was strong in Spirit because He ate the right kind of food.

So many Christians are anorexic in the spirit. Towards the spiritual food of righteousness, they are somehow afraid of their food, which is doing the will of the Father. They’ll say things like, “That’s just striving” or “I’m saved by grace, not by works”. When they say these things, they are pushing back from the table of the Lord. They aren’t eating and they wonder why they grow gaunt and thin, unable to ENDURE any difficulty. What they should do is what Jesus did, belly up to the table and FEAST on DOING the will of the Father. As they do so, they would grow strong, nourished in their spirits, capable to accomplish the will of the Father.

Yet towards sin and wickedness, they treat it like an all you can eat buffet. Plate after heaping plate of spiritual death, they gobble down pornography, immorality and carnality. Their old man grows and is nourished, ultimately overcoming their spirit man, weak and sickly from a lack of sustenance. The final end of this person is a sad one. Their marriages, families and finances end up in a sad, broken mess as this evil tyrant of the flesh declares ultimate victory.

“Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” – John 6:53-56

LIFE LESSON:

What you feed, you empower. What you starve, you can overcome.