Sirach 39:13-16 “Listen to me, my faithful children, and blossom like a rose growing by a stream of water. Send out fragrance like incense, and put forth blossoms like a lily. Scatter the fragrance, and sing a hymn of praise; bless the Lord for all his works. Ascribe majesty to his name and give thanks to him with praise, with songs on your lips, and with harps; this is what you shall say in thanksgiving: “All the works of the Lord are very good, and whatever he commands will be done at the appointed time.” This episode is talking about how important it is to nourish our mind, body and soul. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Nourish Your Mind, Body and Soul
Sirach 39:13-16 “Listen to me, my faithful children, and blossom like a rose growing by a stream of water. Send out fragrance like incense, and put forth blossoms like a lily. Scatter the fragrance, and sing a hymn of praise; bless the Lord for all his works. Ascribe majesty to his name and give thanks to him with praise, with songs on your lips, and with harps; this is what you shall say in thanksgiving: “All the works of the Lord are very good, and whatever he commands will be done at the appointed time.”
I thought this was a beautifully written verse. It sounds so poetic. I like the symbolism as well of us blossoming like a rose that is growing by a stream of water. I wonder why He specifies that the rose is growing by a stream of water. What would be different about a rose that was blossoming by a stream of water versus a rose that is growing elsewhere? Why was this an important detail to put in? Was it just added to make it more poetic? I don’t think so. I think it was added to demonstrate a more accurate picture of how fully the Lord wants us to grow and blossom into our faith.
Roses need water to live. If we have a rose growing in the desert it is relying on whatever water we give it. We have to remember to water our plants. However, roses that grow in the wild, ones that grow next to a stream, they don’t need anything from us. Their roots can grab the water straight from the stream. Roses growing next to a stream of water have an abundant source of water for nourishment. What about us? Do we have an abundant source of nourishment? What are you doing to nourish not only your body, but your soul?
This is something that I think is really important to talk about. And I am not here to talk to you about diets, or some new health fad that is here today and gone tomorrow. What I want to talk to you about is how you can nourish your mind, body and soul. The enemy can attack us more easily when we are weak. When we are not taking care of ourselves. There are so many choices of food out there, some of it is good for us and some of it is bad for us. We tell ourselves that the food that is good for us tastes bad and the food that is bad for us tastes so good. This isn’t always the case. This is something the enemy has planted in our minds and we buy it hook line and sinker because it is easier to eat whatever we want. We tell ourselves that we deserve to eat that cookie because we have had a stressful day. So we do, we eat that cookie, and the next one, and the next one. We may or may not feel better in that moment. However, what about the next day when we go to put our pants on and they are don’t fit anymore because we had a few too many bad days where we ate cookies, candy, fast food, whatever your comfort food is. Then we no longer feel better, we feel awful about ourselves and so we eat the cookies to feel better and the cycle continues.
We need to figure out what type of food nourishes our body. It could be different for all of us. We are all created differently and some things that my siblings can eat I can’t eat and vice versa. It is up to you to figure out what food make you feel good and nourish your body and what ones don’t. The next thing we need to do is stop eating whatever we feel like eating. Believe me when I say I am talking to myself most of all. On Mother’s Day they had cheesecake on sale for a riduculously low price, because that is what the enemy does when he sees you trying to make changes. So we buy this cheesecake with 12 pieces. Actually we buys two because who can pass up a 75% off sale, right? Luckily it was Mother’s Day so we left one of the cheesecakes with our parents. I decided I was only going to eat sweets on Sundays from now on because I crave them all day every day. Well, I ate not one, but two pieces of cheese cake on Monday, and candy at the movies on Tues. Just because we want to eat something doesn’t mean we should or that we have to. We are stronger than we are giving ourselves credit for. We say things like, “I just couldn’t help it,” or at least that is what I say. That is a lie. I can help it, I just don’t want to. I wonder if it would help me stop eating so much crap if I thought to myself while doing it, “You are making the devil so happy right now.” I honestly think that is a true statement. I don’t think the enemy wants us to have will power. He prefers when we act on our impulses. If we rely on our feelings we are not going to make the best choices.
When we eat badly we are giving the enemy free ammunition to use against us. When we eat badly the enemy starts to tell us we have no control, how can we be in charge of our life when we can’t even be in charge with what we eat. He tells us we are powerless to our cravings, he makes us feel bad about our weight, he fills our heads with negative thoughts. However, when we are nourishing our body with food that are healthy, he quiets down. He has less to use against us because when we are nourishing our bodies we tend to feel good about ourselves. We are less vulnerable to attacks from the enemy when we are nourishing our bodies instead of filling it with junk.
It is also important to nourish your mind and your soul as well. This can be just as important and yet it is less talked about. We also have cravings in these areas that can lead us to fill our minds with stuff that is not nourishing us. For instance, how many hours have you spent watching TV that is not nourishing your mind or your soul? Some TV shows are to your mind and soul what donuts are to your body. They make you feel good in the moment but then afterwards you feel bad. The enemy starts to say things to make you feel bad about yourself. He says things like, “You wasted so much time today.” “ You could have been doing something productive with your time.” “You will never get the project done because you can’t stop watching TV.” It doesn’t have to be TV, it can be whatever you are filling your time with that is not serving you. Maybe it is social media. It may feel good when you start scrolling but inevitably you will see something that upsets you, and if not you will start to feel bad because now you have to work late because you spent 2 hours scrolling on social media today.
As you can see, there are lots of things to distract us from nourishing our mind, body and soul. This is why I like this verse so much. It talks about the roses that are growing right next to the river. How can we be more like these roses? How can we be so close to the thing that helps us grow? We can read the word everyday. We can surround ourselves with things that build us up. We can pray that God gives us the strength to not eat that donut or watch that TV show today. Our lifeline, the one and only thing we need to help us grow is God. He will provide the rest. Stay close to Him, call on Him every day, ask Him for the help you need to get through each day. Call upon Him in difficult moments when you need to make a hard choice, even if that hard choice is just whether or not to eat a cookie. God loves when we come to Him with the big things in our lives, and he also loves it just as much when we come to Him with the little things in our lives. Stay close to God and He will help you not just grow, but flourish, like the roses that grow by a stream of water.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord we love you so much. We want to grow and flourish in your company. Help us to stay close to you. Help us to learn to nourish our mind, body and souls. Help us to not give in to our cravings. Lord, help us to see we have the power to resist our cravings. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Also, we have the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of us and that makes us more powerful than ever! We ask that you remind us of this when we feel weak. We ask that you help us to see that we are stronger against enemy attacks when we are nourishing our mind, body and soul. Lord we are so grateful that you care for us so much. We are grateful for all the strength and wisdom you give us. We love you, you are amazing and we ask all of this in accordance with your holy will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow. Have a blessed day!