“Have you ever heard the expression, ‘You are what you eat’?” Stan asked me one morning.
“I have,” I replied, “and I’ve been waiting for you to turn into a blueberry pancake!”
Stan laughed as he said, “Yeah, me too. I’m not sure that’s going to happen, but I do know that if I feed on what God has for me I will become what He intends.”
“How so?” I asked.
“Well,” he replied, “it seems to me that the daily bottom-line purpose of being a Christian is to be seeking to be transformed into the image of Christ. The best way for that to happen with me is to stop feeding on what I want apart from God, and to eat and digest what He has for me.”
“How’s a person supposed to do that?” I asked.
“Choose,” was Stan’s one-word response. “I have choices to make that lead me toward being transformed closer and closer into the image of Christ. It’s not just going to happen all by itself if I keep doing what I want to do apart from what God has for me to be and to do.”
“Oh,” I replied, “you mean like pursuing the three steps in being a disciple? Is that it?”
While Stan clearly knew what I was asking, he replied, “Tell me what you think that looks like.”
“Well,” I said, “the first step is to stop feeding only on what I want.”
“Denying self,” Stan replied. “That’s good. And the second step?”
“That could be taking up what God has for me to take up by feeding on what He has for me so I’m growing closer and closer into the likeness of Christ. Like surrendering to the leading and feeding of the Holy Spirit.”
“A great second step!” Stan replied with a smile. “And the third?”
“That would be following however, wherever, and whenever God leads, with the ‘whenever’ being always!”
“Well done, my friend,” Stan replied with a smile. “Feeding on what God has for us will, indeed, make us into what we eat.”
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Bible verses to consider:
Thy words were found and I ate them, and Thy words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; for I have been called by Thy name, O Lord God of hosts. Jeremiah 15:16.
Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance. Isaiah 55:2.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2.
And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” Luke 9:23.
Prayer: Thank you for your free and gracious provision of life eternally in your presence beginning on this side of eternity. I confess that too often I choose not to feed on what you have for me, but I choose to feed on the things of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Please forgive the foolishness of that. Help me to follow your lead in feeding on only what you have for me so I will draw ever closer to you. Thank you that I can and do bring these prayers before you in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Think on this: Have you chosen to feed on what God has for you in the sense of accepting His free and gracious provision of life eternally with Him? If no, why? What’s standing in the way of that? If you are a Christian with the assurance of salvation and redemption, how are you doing with what you find appetizing while you remain on this side of eternity? Are you feeding on what God has for you? If you sense the need for change in any of this, how is that going to happen? Is that what you want? Why or why not?
Waiting for the Train 