I just finished eating breakfast and let me tell you: It was delicious! Our breakfasts are normally eggs, bread and some type of coffee, but today’s meal was a feast. It was so good, that I wanted to keep eating.
I have a “normal” appetite for food. I eat three meals a day (not counting little snacks), but I don’t think I eat too little or too much. Today, however, my appetite was almost insatiable and I had to “put a knife” to my throat (Proverbs 23:2) to stop eating.
With Thanksgiving and Nativity just around the corner, we must learn to control our appetites. We need to tame the turkey, slow down with the sweet potatoes and stuffing, be mellow with the mashed potatoes, calm down with the cornbread and cranberry sauce and delay any interaction with desserts.
The same holds true for all other appetites of the flesh. As I wrote in the last blog (The Kiss of Death), temptation is real, powerful and deadly. I forgot to mention in my last entry, that temptation has a willing and strong ally in our sensual appetites.
We would like to blame the devil and his forces for every sin we commit, but the fact is that we have as much to blame, if not more than the tempter. James 1:13-15 puts it this way:
“Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” (Emphasis mine)
A Chinese (or Indian) proverb declares that inside of us live two dogs; a good and a bad one. The strongest dog is the one we feed the most. I don’t believe there are actual dogs living in me, but there are some desires inside of me that are not holy. The appetites of the stomach might be controlled with medicine or self-will, but the appetites of the flesh cannot be controlled, pacified or tamed: They must be put to death (Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5).
The Bible declares that when we received Christ as Lord and Savior, we were born again (John 3:3) and received a new nature in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).
As a believer my desires and appetites are spiritual and holy. I have a craving for God (Psalm 42:2; Isaiah 26:9) and for his Word (Psalm 119). Let us feed on the Bread of Heaven (John 6) and the appetite for this world will end.
Alexander Gonzalez
