Spiritual Remedy

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! --Psalm 119:103 (NIV)

As flu season spreads its sweaty blanket over most of the country, the local drugstores are filled with people looking for a soothing remedy. Even on the internet sites I frequent, suggestions for beating the symptoms and discomfort of the flu are traded back and forth as though they were tissue boxes. How's the old maxim go? Feed a cold, starve a fever? I don't know. What I do know is that periods of illness are when the body needs good nutrition the most.

The side effects of spiritual illness can be just as troublesome as a physical ailment. When we fall out of the pattern of good "health", we deplete our spiritual reserves. Decreased church attendance, infrequent prayer, and limited periods of scripture reading can render us helpless to fend off the attacks of the enemy. Our frail hearts can quickly succumb to spiritual "germs" that prey on our weaknesses. These give way to deeper problems of sin.

The solution? Proper spiritual nutrition and diet!

What are you doing these days for spiritual food? More importantly, how is your spiritual appetite? I know mine can go downhill in a big hurry when I'm not feeling well. It's so easy to get frustrated, especially since God isn't there with us face to face in a tangible sense. I have to remind myself that it's far more beneficial to spend my limited energy on a simple act of prayer, rather than wasting it being bitter. I love it when God gives me a taste of his sweet spirit. Even the tiniest morsel of it satisfies a weary soul.