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You Crave What You Eat

Bad news—scientific studies have proven it and our experience confirms it: you crave what you eat.  If you eat a cinnamon roll several mornings in a row for breakfast, you can be sure you’ll wake up wanting that soft, gooey, sweet goodness.  Food manufacturers are well aware of the way physiological addictions form and utilize this information to ensure sales.  There is big science behind the way they weave together sugar, salt, fat, and other added ingredients to leave us wanting more.  These ingredients trigger powerful physiological reactions that keep us coming back again and again.  Food companies also spend millions of dollars to discover that perfect amount of “crunch” in a potato chip or “fizzle” in a soda so that you have the optimal, craving-inducing oral experience of their product.

Good news—You crave what you eat.  When you choose whole, clean foods you will crave whole, clean foods.  When you fill your mouth with lean protein, plenty of fibrous veggies, and natural sugars your body stops longing for processed sweets.  It’s actually possible to retrain your brain to hate junk food!

We crave what we eat and our souls reflect this truth.  Our souls long for that with which we fill them.  If we intake a steady diet of triviality, triviality is what we will crave.   If we stuff ourselves full of entertainment, and possessions, and vanity, and success, and social media, these are the things to which we will turn when our souls are hungry.  But if we consistently enjoy God by resting in his presence, reading his word, being with his people, sitting under excellent, gospel-centered teaching, and beholding him in nature we will LONG for more of Him!

David described the state of our souls in Psalm 63:1.  “Oh God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”   For so long I felt condemned when I read this verse because I may have had some moments of that kind of holy longing, but for the most part, I don’t experience my need for God in such a dramatic fashion. But then I realized, David’s statement, though a reflection of his own personal passion for God, is also just a statement of fact.  As Blaise Paschal famously stated, there is an “infinite abyss” inside us and it “can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.”  Though we may try to placate our cravings with lesser things, our cravings can truly only be satisfied in our Creator.

Instead of getting to the end of our lives and realizing we’ve wasted time and resources on that which doesn’t satisfy, let’s heed Peter’s instruction –“Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the LORD is good” (1 Peter 2:2-3).  Let’s make space and uncover our truest and deepest longings that we might have more of God.  Let’s drink deeply from the river of God’s delights and feast on the abundance of his house (Ps. 36:8).  Even in the midst of dry, arid, difficult circumstances, may our souls be satisfied as with fat and rich food (Ps. 63:5).  May our souls cling to God (Ps. 63:8).

For more about Ashlee or to invite her to your next event visit: https://about.me/ashleenjohnson.

Ashlee Johnson

Ashlee is the wife of a pastor, mom of two busy little ones, and a graduate of Gordon-Conwell Seminary. She is passionate about communicating the truths of Scripture to women and magnifying Jesus as the All-Satisfying Treasure and Almighty Redeemer. She has lived in North Carolina for most of her life and loves making the most of the sidewalks and parks in her 1940s neighborhood. Ashlee enjoys healthy eating and exercising, but finds it nearly impossible to resist homemade cookies!

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