The Act of Intimacy & Our Appetites

There have been a few teachings that make me very aware of how human I am.

What do I mean by that? Well, most of the things I do are very human acts that originated as “intimate” acts with God, but because we simply “do” them without thinking, they have turned into a human act.

Prayer in itself is an intimate act with God. God taught us how to do this, how to talk to Him, share with Him, lean on Him. You pour out your need, your longing to have God’s power in a situation. There are times for the cry on the floor, “help me God” prayers – those pull us right to the throne of God, a very intimate act. But as we go through our day and think “God help me on this test” or “help me find a parking spot”, that is human prayer. There was no intimacy with it, simply me wanting something for me. Thought for you: what can you do personally to restore your intimacy with God in prayer?

What about eating, another everyday activity? Have we made interacting with food a human or spiritual activity? If you are like me, it turned long ago into a human activity. I enjoy food, food enjoys me, yes I pray before I eat. I thank God for the food and dive right in, that is enough isn’t it?

A message I listened to made me realize that the very act of eating should be one that promotes my intimacy with my Heavenly Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

What was the first thing Adam and Eve were instructed to do? They were put into a garden, a garden grows food. “You may eat from any tree in the garden except…..” Genesis 2:15-16

God in the first book of the Bible, in the first interactions with mankind, talks about growing and eating food. What was the first temptation about? Eating.

Satan slithered in and says, “Did God really say you could not eat…?” Genesis 3:1 Right away, the first interaction with the enemy of our soul, brings food into the equation, it breaks the bond of intimacy with our Creator.

Very enlightening, if you stop and ponder the significance of food.

The very last book of the Bible, Revelation where God is giving instruction to the 7 churches: to 2 of the churches God says: “you let sexual perversion and eating food offered to idols…….”. Revelation 2:14, 20

Notice the first and the last books of the Bible talk about handling food wrongly, there must be something to figure out here. How are we to handle food?

How many of us have some kind of struggle with food? Have you in your life struggled with body image, weight gain, weight loss, struggled with certain kinds of food or drink, too much food, not enough food, dieting, bingeing, tummy tucks, exercises to keep that food from showing. Now there are so many food allergies, that for some eating is terribly difficult. Food, one of the things that God talks about first and lastly in the Bible, has become a stumbling block to many of us. It was never intended to be that way.

The last thing stated about food in the Bible is the Wedding Feast of the Lamb! We will be sitting at a feast with the Bride Groom- Jesus, and we are the guests of honor, more food!

Guess what? Jesus ate with His disciples AFTER He was resurrected 7 times. Food matters.

The above verses in Revelation it says eating food sacrificed to idols. What is food offered to idols? Originally this is food that was offered up to some kind of religious entity in a church or religious assembly. But an idol can be anything. Anything that sets itself as more important than God. How about corporations that think more of their profit than the people who are eating their food? Idolatry is anything that sets itself up apart from God. Know any food corporations that make a lot of money and went for fast and money making instead of nutritious? Could that be an idol?

Why are they successful? Because of our appetites. Our appetites demand that we have food when we want it, we have humanized it. It takes time to make quality wholesome food. There is nothing like fresh baked bread out of the oven, but it takes 3-4 hours to get it. We have traded quality and nutrition with fast and quick. We have set up our appetites to be more important than God.

An appetite is anything our eyes see that we “want”…..

If food is as important to God as we see He says it is, then we perhaps need to take a step back and look at how we treat food. How can we put food back into the place where God intended it, an intimate act to do together with Him? Sounds like communion – the bread and the wine (juice), but I believe that each and every time we eat or drink, we need to be eating in such a way that we have fellowship with God. It is not only for communion, it is the way God designed it to be.

How can we put food together with God? The New Testament says – “ in everything give thanks.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18

“So whether you eat or drink Or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31

How about if before we eat or drink, we thank God for His provision, ask Him to nourish our bodies with the food or drink we are going to eat, ask that any harmful particles in our food be not allowed to affect us (GMO’s, allergens, chemicals, hormones). Sounds pretty simple, right? Nope.

I have been trying to get into this habit for 4 weeks, and I am amazed at how fast I stuff something in my mouth, or swig a drink of water and only think to thank God for it – hours later, if at all. I have made food a human thing, not a time for intimacy with God. I am going to keep trying until I get it because it makes sense to ask God the Creator of our bodies to bless the food we are putting in, He knows what we need.

Appetites – we can have appetites for many things, cars, food, money, jobs, iphones, sex. Did you notice the Revelation verses linked sex and food together. These 2 things are insatiable (cannot get enough) for our appetites. Ask a pregnant lady with a food craving if something else will do…… you will soon find out that nothing else will do. You want what you want now.

Can I talk a little bit about this other appetite, sex. For many of you, this may not be a topic that is for you as you may be single or widowed. But for those of you in a committed to God marriage this next part is for you.

Brian and I took a marriage seminar years ago and something they said stood out to us. Our appetites, what our eyes see, what our mind imagines, what movies say, what songs say, what others say about the subject of sex – wow there is a lot out there. But if we are in a committed relationship, our eyes, minds should only be on our partners. Sounds logical. BUT the stimulus of the world around us can make that very, very difficult.

When we approach each other for intimacy, we would like to believe we are only thinking of each other and heaven’s to Betsy, not thinking about God, because that sounds like a downer. Well, can I please challenge you….

God is the Creator of this too. In the seminar it pointed out that our minds have so many images already lodged in there that are not helpful to our marriage. You can go to the grocery store and find more cleavage and provocativeness than on tv sometimes! Online porn is the crack of many minds.

How do we make the time together a sacred time with each other and honoring to God? How about we pray first? That is what our course challenged us to do. Before we began to engage with each other, Brian and I were challenged to pray first, thanking God for His gift of sex, asking God to clear our minds of any negative or harmful images and help us to focus our minds and hearts on each other. We asked Him to join us and protect us. You invite the Creator of the whole business into your business and well, try it, you will not be sorry. God kinda knows what He is doing in this area, He did create it and that is all I am going to say, except this process can save many relationships from destructive and harmful outside influences.

Do not toy with God, this is not for casual sex, an affair, or a relationship that is outside of God’s boundaries. A committed relationship, husband and wife, the way God intended because God honors what He created. He will honor your faithfulness.

God knows our appetites, He created us with our longings, our desires, He knows how to fill them. God created people to be actively involved in a relationship with Him.

How do we get to know someone? I might arrange a coffee date. When we sit down to get to know each other, I do not pick up a book about that person to read more about them. Not when that person is sitting right there and we can talk, engage in conversation, get to know each other. God created our activities to be things we can do together with Him, to actively get to know Him, to whet our appetites to want to know Him better.

This particular calendar week is called Passion Week, a lot can happen in a week. It is Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, the Betrayal, The Torture, The Crucifixion, and The Resurrection. God so intimately cared about each of us, that He designed a plan to restore fellowship between man and God again. We call it Easter. This is the perfect week to get to know God better, to acknowledge His sacrifice for you. May this blog whet your appetite to engage with God in ways you have not been doing before, to make everyday activities into God encounters.

He Is Risen My Friends, Thank Him and Enjoy Him!