Spiritual starvation

On Tuesday the 9th of December, I was really struggling with depression and having major emotional breakdowns because of health problems and anger. I went to Prayer night at Gospel for Asia, and there was a guest speaker: Pastor E.Z. (Emeal Zwayne). The message God had prepared for him to speak, was exactly what I needed to hear.

He began his sermon with the statistics of true starvation. How there are many people around the world and the U.S. who are truly starving…

…poor nutrition causes nearly half (45%) of deaths in children 

under the age of five--3.1 million children each year

….some 805 million people in the world do not have enough food to

lead a healthy active life; that's 1 in 9 people on earth

…1/3 of the world population is well fed, 1/3 is undernourished,

and 1/3 is starved

E.Z. then referred to our spiritual life, and how we can easily get undernourished and eventually starving. And it all starts with our silent 'skipping' of reading the Bible. It only takes one day of not being in God's Word, to start a downward spiral to depression, grief, guilt, and anger. Because one day leads to another day, then to a week, and finally a month of not reading the Word. You will then began trying to fill the void in your heart, soul, and mind with other materialistic and worldly pleasures.

And that my friends, was happening to me. I decided it would be okay to skip a day of having my devotions, and then a second day came and went until I had spent a whole month out of the Bible, and in the world. I wondered why I was so emotional and depressed all the time? The answer was right in front of me, all I needed to do was dig in His Word and find it. I knew in my heart that I was spiritually starving...in fact, I was almost dead. The problem was I didn't want to admit it. But that cold night in December, was one that would change the weeks to come.

I started reading the Word of God, and my heart was sucking it in as fast as it could. Every word was beautiful. Every verse meaningful. I all of a sudden realized how hungry I was...the spiritual food from Jesus was, and still is incredibly satisfying, totally delicious, and amazingly cleansing. My attitude started to change. My emotions started becoming more stable. I was filled with more of a peace about the situations around me. I could actually be happy again!

So I made a resolution at the beginning of this year, to read through the entire Bible on my own with no reading plans. Sadly, I've never actually read through the whole Bible in my 19 years of life. But this year is going to be different! I am going to find out everything there is to know about the Beginning, about the Middle, and about the End. I have also decided to get a piece of paper and write all the names of God on it. On another piece of paper, write who we are in God's eyes, such as: a royal priesthood; a chosen people; precious cornerstone. So far, I have already found 13 different Names for God just in the beginning 26 chapters of Genesis! I had no idea there would be so many in the first book of the Bible. It just makes it all the more exciting, to see how many names He has for Himself in His Word!

 Staying faithful to Jesus, by reading His Word every day can be challenging but totally worth it. He loves you so much, and wants you to get to know Him better. Why not? What is holding you back from knowing Jesus more intimately and fully?

He is worthy and greatly to be praised

 Olivia Grace