As I went through this first day of my fast I noticed a few things. The most suprising of which is how selfish I am when it comes to my body. Sure a human needs food to sustain life indefinitely, but having the restriction really showed me how much I simply give my body what it wants. America is a very food oriented, we have candies and cakes, big meals and snack foods, foods to sit with, and foods on the go. There is alway food during mealtimes, and usually ten or twenty times in between. Today I noticed much more just how much food we constantly have around us, and I am sure I will only discover more as the week goes on.
Though I was hungry, the hunger did not drive me to food. Instead when I felt hungry I would pray. Through the prayers God allowed me to step outside of my hunger and see just how much I eat to satisfy me. Even during times when I am not hungry. This lead my thoughts down a path totally apart from food. What else in life do I do for my own selfish satisfaction? As the week goes on I hope to be able to more fully answer this question and begin to extricate myself from by own selfishness and turn instead to seeing others fulfilled.
Today our study was over Galatians 1. At first it was difficult for me to glean any meaning from the first chapter, as it is an introduction. Jeff brought up a good point. Verses 6 and 7 say “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.” If you look around at society today there are so many things demanding your attention. So many groups are claiming to have ‘the way’. This includes non religious groups as well, they via for your attention and belief just as hard. Taking a look into the Christian side of things one would think it would be better. Nope, Christianity has been swayed and influenced by society so much that in many places it is hard to distinguish between it and what is around it. I think this is probably part of what Paul was talking about. So how do we fix it? Jesus. Jesus came to repair creation. Jesus allows us to have a relationship with God. God is the only unspoiled fixed point on the map. Collectively we Christians need to move deeper into a relationship with Christ and uncover the gospel as God intended it.
I encourage all my readers to pick up their Bible and read Galatians along with me. Please feel free to leave comments too. Even those of you who think I am totally off base. I would love to hear your insight, as many times kernels of truth are to be found.
God Bless
Hey Ben,
Thanks for sharing your life with us. It’s encouraging to see God at work in a brother.
Here’s some food for thought when it comes to the topic of seeking satisfaction for oneself in life.
“…what is the church’s ultimate joy? Is it not to be cleansed and sanctified, and then presented as a bride to the sovereign, all-glorious Christ? So Christ sought His own joy, yes- but He sought it in the joy of the church! That is what love is: the pursuit of our own joy in the joy of the beloved…in other words, the union between Christ and His bride is so close (“one flesh”) that any good done to her is a good done to Himself.
…By some definitions, this cannot be love. Love, they say, must be free of self-interest- especially Christlike love, especially Calvary love. I have never seen such a view of love made to square with this passage of Scripture [Eph. 5:29-30]. Yet what Christ does for His bride, this text plainly calls love. “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church…” Why not let the text define love for us, instead of bringing our definition from ethics or philosophy?
According to this text, love is the pursuit of our joy in the holy joy of the beloved. There is no way to exclude self-interest from love, for self-interest is not the same as selfishness. Selfishness seeks its own private happiness at the expense of others. Love seeks its happiness in the happiness of the beloved. It will even suffer and die for the beloved in order that its joy might be full in the life and purity of the beloved.”
-John Piper “Desiring God” p. 206-7
I AM GOING TO READ ALONG WITH YOU I THINK. I REALLY LIKE THAT VERSE 6 AND 7 YOU PUT UP . THAT IS TOTALLY SOMTHING I HAVE BEEN PRAYING ON AND ABOUT WITH CERTAIN PEOPLE IN MY LIFE RIGHT NOW. THIS IS INCOURAGING
Verse 10- another HUGE temptation of this world and our society- people pleasing…