The Junk Food of Life - Greg Laurie Daily Devotion - May 17, 2017

The Junk Food of Life

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. - (1 Corinthians 10:23)

Have you ever filled up on appetizers? Maybe you’ve had a meal waiting for you, but then you started snacking. Suddenly you realize you’ve lost your appetite. I do this all the time. My wife will be cooking, and I’ll start swiping a few bites of food. Before I know it, I’m eating my way around the kitchen. When she finally serves her wonderful, homecooked meal, I’m not hungry anymore because I’ve filled up on other things while I was snacking.

We can snack on the junk food of life, as it were, and dull our spiritual appetites. They may not be bad things necessarily, but they can diminish our hunger for the Word of God.

It is not a sin to watch television, but it is a sin to watch some things on television. I will admit to you that after I have watched television for a while, I feel sort of brain-dead. Do I then have a desire to go read the Bible? No. I have diminished my spiritual appetite.

There are things we can do that keep the edge off our hunger for the things of God. For example, when I listen to praise music, it builds me up spiritually. It encourages me and even stimulates my appetite for spiritual things.

The Bible says, “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify” (1 Corinthians 10:23). Or, as the J. B. Phillips New Testament says, “As I have said before, the Christian position is this: I may do anything, but everything is not useful. Yes, I may do anything but everything is not constructive.”

We want to look for the things that will increase our spiritual appetites, not for the things that will diminish them.

Social media summary: Some things stimulate our spiritual appetites. But there other things that can diminish them.

Copyright © 2017 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

For more relevant and biblical teaching from Pastor Greg Laurie, go to www.harvest.org
and
Listen to Greg Laurie's daily broadcast on OnePlace.com.

Watch Greg Laurie's weekly television broadcast on LightSource.com.

SPECIAL OFFER

Celebrate God’s Transforming Power

Through their hit TV show, Fixer Upper, Chip and Joanna Gaines have won the hearts of Americans, demonstrating that worthless wrecks can be transformed into masterpieces—just like God does with us! In their new book, The Magnolia Story, they talk about life, business, marriage, and faith.

You can receive a copy as a thank-you gift for donating to Harvest Ministries today.