It is essential to have a balanced diet such that we have a healthy body and a healthy mind. You are what you eat and drink! A balanced diet is important to maintain health and a sensible body weight.
No single food will or can provide all the essential nutrients that the body needs to be healthy and function efficiently. A balanced diet should contain protein, fats, carbohydrates and fibres, vitamins, mineral etc. All of these should be included in the right amounts, providing you with a good supply of essential amino acids, essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and, of course, fresh drinking water.
A diet that includes a variety of different foods is most likely to provide all the essential nutrients.
An unbalanced diet is when you don’t get (at least) the minimum amounts of each food group every day. It can also be a diet that has too much of some nutrients and not enough of others. In addition, an unbalanced diet is often one that contains too much refined (processed) food.
We can see many effects of unbalanced food. You could crave for things that are not food or even crave for ordinary food just because you are deficient in things that you need. You could feel sluggish, have skin problems, brittle nails and hair, bad breath, body odour etc.
In women, it could lead to problems in the menstrual cycle such as irregular periods, or very heavy bleeding. You could be underweight, or overweight. And if you were to get into the more severe problems, such as those caused by extreme obesity or malnutrition then you start dealing with problems like organ damage, heart attacks, blood clots, strokes, bone loss, high cholesterol, stunted growth, kidney, liver and heart faliure, and sometimes problems with the reproductive organs (such as polycystic ovarian syndrome)
In short, if you do not get enough of one of the food groups, or an adequate supply of essential nutrients, it can result in failure to flourish, poor growth, poor development, poor physical and mental health, infections, disease or even death. Therefore, consuming foods in proportion to their nutritional value helps to prevent infections, disorders and disease.
On the other hand, if you have too much of one of the food groups, such as refined processed carbohydrates, it can lead to other problems, such as weight gain, insulin resistance, diabetes etc, and many other diet related diseases and death. From this we can see how important it is to have a balanced diet for a good health of our body.
As we have seen that it is very important to have a balanced diet to be physically fit and healthy, so it is with the spiritual life too. We need to have a balanced diet for our spiritual health too. We can get this nourishing spiritual food only through the word of God.
Jesus said, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ (Matthew 4:4)
Jesus told Peter, “Feed my sheep.“ By this Jesus meant to teach God’s Word. Bible studies, Sunday School classes, house fellowships etc can help us learn more about the bible. This will help us grow strong in our Christian lives.
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, the man of God may be competent, for every good work.” (2Timothy 3:16-17)
“Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” (1Peter2:2)
Lets think about our spiritual needs. How well are we fed or how well are we really feeding our spirit? Are we feeding our spiritual life with a balanced diet? Or are we not aware that we are in need of spiritual balanced diet?
May be you think I am too young to think about spiritual life, or I am good for nothing how can I live upto the standards of God? Or I am liar, cheater adulterer, and so on the list may go as far as infinity, but when these things come to our minds and try to distract us from hearing the voice of God then we can know that they are not true only if we are fed properly through the word of God, the spiritual diet. We can deny those thoughts using phrases, examples, situations from the bible. For example, Samuel was a young boy when God called him to His service, Jacob was a liar and a cheater yet God made him the father of the 12 tribes and blessed him, King David was an adulterer but God called him, “a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do,” (Acts 13:22).
We cannot live up to the standards of God by our own efforts but with Christ in us, we can. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2Corinthians 12:9. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10
To know and live the truths like these we ought to know our bible. It is clearly written in the bible that “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, (John 8:31)… and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:32)”
Now a question may arise, “What is the truth?”
Our God is the truth…
… for you have redeemed me, LORD God of truth. Psalms 31:5.
The bible is the truth…
But I will tell you what is inscribed in the book of truth… Dan.10:21.
Truth comes through Christ.
… grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. John 1:17.
According to the bible these are the truths and if we understand these truths correctly we can be free. Free from all the guilts and guilty conscience and serve the Lord. If we want to live a life free from bondage and we must study and meditate on it because the word of God is the truth. This can guide us to a life free from worries, guilt of the past, and from all bondages.
But if we do not know the word how can we have faith in it to free us? As it is said “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17) no one can see that we are set free. To have active faith like Paul had (…I will show you my faith by my works. James 2:18) it is very important that we abide in the Word.
If we really want to please God, live upto His standards, bear fruits and grow in knowledge of God (to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Col.1:10), we must know the word of God. If we do not know the word of God as we should then we might go wrong. Like Jesus said, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.” Matt. 22:29 and we might end up like people where apostle Paul said, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” Gal. 3:3.
On the day we accepted Jesus as our Lord and saviour we were set free from many things.
We were called to freedom (Gal. 5:13).
We were set free from:
- 1. the net they have hidden for me, Psalms 31:4
- 2. troubles and distresses, Psalms 25:17
- 3. prisons, Psalms 146:7 and most importantly,
- 4. sin, Romans 6:18.
When we know these truths we can live a healthy spiritual life upto God’s standards and to know the truth we ought to eat a balanced spititual diet which is the bible.
So, to live a healthy life EAT A BALANCED DIET and
to live a fruitful, healthy spiritual life EAT SPITITUAL BALANCED DIET.
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