Does a Spiritual Fad Diet Work?

Are you considering a spiritual fad diet? During college, I took a nutrition class. The instructor discussed why the approach of radically changing the way you eat does not always work. In fact, a lot of times you end up worse off than when you started. Sometimes in our faith, we try to put ourselves on a spiritual fad diet. We attempt to join in on popular strict religious regulations. The early church also struggled with this. Paul admonishes them in Colossians 2:23,

“These things indeed have a show of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh” (NKJV).

Before this verse, Paul is telling them to hold fast to Christ and not get caught up in the religious regulations of the day. Why? Because a spiritual fad diet is useless in fighting fleshly passions.

 

Fad diets and junk food

Why do people go on a fad diet? Usually, they want to eat better. People want to avoid junk food. If everyone knows junk food is bad, why do we eat junk food in the first place? The struggle comes from our eyes, taste buds, and mind. Junk food looks really appealing to the eyes; our taste buds are in love with junk food! As a result, our eyes and our taste buds try to convince our brain that junk food is a good thing! Ever notice how your mouth waters when you think of junk food? Uh huh! Nice try, sneaky taste buds! That is one way your taste buds try to convince your brain to bring on the junk food! Your taste buds are trying to show your brain that they know better than your poor little tummy and the junk food is something you need. In the meantime, our body is getting overwhelmed with the empty nutrients in junk food. By now, you are probably wondering where I am going with this junk food analogy…

Our mental wrestling match

Just like there are two things trying to tell our brain what we should eat, there are two things telling our brain what kind of spiritual food we need. Maybe you will notice these two players who make up our mental wrestling match.

Player #1: fleshly indulgence

Player number one is named fleshly indulgence. Fleshly indulgence weighs in with the world. It loves spiritual junk food. How does fleshly indulgence work to convince our brain we need junk food? 1 John 2:16 gives us this insight,

“For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of the Father but is of the world” (NKJV). 

As you can see, fleshly indulgence works a lot like our taste buds. It makes sin look good to our eyes. It then makes our body feel like we need these things. Through pride, it convinces our brain that it knows better than the Spirit of God. Now that we know a little more about fleshly desires, let us go back to our original question.

Player #2: Holy Spirit

Player number two is named the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit weighs in with God’s word. The Spirit hates and even tries to reject spiritual junk food. How do we make the Holy Spirit’s voice so loud in our lives that fleshly desires’ voice is drowned out? 1 Timothy 4:6-8 says,

“If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed. But reject profane and old wives fables and exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.” (NKJV).

Two keys for being spiritually strong

This verse gives us two keys for how to be spiritually strong.

1. A healthy, consistent diet

These verses point out that our nourishment comes from the words of faith. In fighting against the messages of fleshly indulgences, we need something to help our brain discern where the messages are coming from. In Hebrews 4:12, we are given our secret weapon to help our brain listen to messages coming from the Spirit.

“For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (NKJV).

The Word of God helps our mind discern whether our thoughts and intents are coming from fleshly indulgences or coming from the Spirit of God. How does the word do that? I mean seriously, you are telling me to be spiritually healthy I need to sit down and read a book every day? How does that make any sense?

“In a world that tries to feed our mind deceptions and lies, the word feeds our mind truth.” (click to tweet)

Just like healthy foods ward off sicknesses. The healthy foods of truth help ward of sin and spiritual illness.

2. Exercise

If all we do is eat healthily, our body does not make full use of the nutrients it is being given. To make full use of the truth we are being fed, we must exercise living out that truth in our lives. One of the problems with a fad diet is it tries to take us from benching 100 pounds to benching 300 in a short period of time. This strain on our body often leads to muscle strains or even tears which quickly weakens us (and are no fun to try and recover from).  In the same way, if we try to build our spiritual muscles too fast, we may strain or tear those muscles, weakening them. It takes time and consistent exercise to build healthy spiritual muscles. Hebrews 5:14 states,

“But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

Through the diligent use of our muscles, along with our spiritual food, we train our muscles to discern the good messages of the Spirit from the bad messages of fleshly indulgence. We not only discern between those two things, but those muscles help our mind make healthy choices that lead to a healthy lifestyle.