Have you ever fallen into a pattern of snacking all day on this and that which caused you to never really feel hungry for healthy food?

“I don’t need dinner. I have been eating all day!”

Usually the foods that we “graze on’ are junk foods that are highly processed, low in nutrition, and high in sugar, fat, and salt. Most people aren’t grazing on fruit, raw veggies and nuts. We want chips, cookies, crackers, candy, soda, energy drinks, coffee! This messes up our appetite and taste buds. Healthy food doesn’t ‘sound good’ anymore. We want more junk.

The same thing happens when we consume ‘junk’ in our daily lives for entertainment and to pass the time and to avoid boredom or having to ‘feel’ unpleasant feelings. Like scrolling Reels or Tik Tok videos, watching half-true fear media like Rumble videos, or reading dystopian or romance novels or other brainless books, or eating up all the propaganda on our favorite websites. These things make us ‘feel’ better like eating a few cookies when we have an energy slump.

This diet of sex, stupidity, fake news, and other things we use to ‘check out’ from the world feels satisfying to our lazy brains. It makes us no longer want to read good books, think about hard things, have deep conversations, CARE about other people, think of productive things to do, consider other people’s perspectives, or simply do the things we should be doing, like the dishes, mowing the lawn, going to church, reading the Bible.

Most importantly, it fools us into thinking we don’t need real relationships, real time spent with fellow believers, real time spent in humble prayer and fellowship with God. The junk deceives us into feeling “full” when we are actually starving! We need Jesus !

The only way to revive your appetite for the truly meaningful things in life is to give up the junk. You have to admit to yourself that you are avoiding reality, seeking escape, and have developed bad habits that need to stop. I know because I did this. I admitted to myself that I was spending too much time ‘researching’ all the bad stuff in the world and thinking I was some kind of investigative reporter. Haha!

But God is good. He opened my eyes to what really matters. My family, my church, reading my Bible, my home, time in prayer. Not that I do not ever take a break to scroll Facebook or read blogs. Not that I do not ever research my favorite topics and comment on them. Not that I am some kind of saint. But I have worked on having more balance in how I spend my time and being more picky about what I read and watch. It was a process of replacing some of the ‘junk food’ with more ‘healthy food’.

In these last days, we have to make sure we are spending more time on the things that God says are important. Most of my readers are already doing this, so there is no judgment here. Just musing about how easy it is to get into a habit of grazing on things that draw us away from God.

The world is at war because they do not truly seek God. Instead they are hungry for money, power, revenge, territory, and whatever makes them feel good. Their flesh has been eating the things of this world and it has satisfied them. Only by repentance, confession and submission to God can they be reconciled and healed and be filled with the Spirit.

ROMANS 8:5 ESV – FOR THOSE WHO LIVE ACCORDING TO THE FLESH SET THEIR MINDS ON THE THINGS OF THE FLESH, BUT THOSE WHO LIVE ACCORDING TO THE SPIRIT SET THEIR MINDS ON THE THINGS OF THE SPIRIT.

Jesus said he is the bread of life. Whoever eats that ‘bread’ will never be hungry again. (John 6:35) Will you trust Jesus for the bread of life?