My daughter enjoys reading books after her schoolwork. One day, she picked up a teenage book I had recently received but hadn’t read myself. I asked her to wait until I’d gone through it first. I told her; “I want to make sure the content is healthy for you.” Just as healthy food is important for physical health, what you read matters to your spiritual and mental health.
Friend, healthy feeding is important to healthy living (Proverbs 4:20-22). You cannot be healthier than your feeding. The cause of most sicknesses can be traced, directly or indirectly, to wrong feeding. Food is not just for strength. It is for health (1 Kings 19:7-8). Food is medicine, so you cannot afford to take the wrong one. The word of God is health to all your flesh.
When it comes to
your spiritual and mental health, what you feed on matters (Mark 4:24). Why do you put gates around your house or apartments but leave the gates of your spirit and mind opened? Guarding your spirit and mind should be more important than guarding your physical property (Proverbs 4:23).
Most mental stress, discouragement, and depression are caused by what you interact with (1 Kings 19:2-3). A lot of people use their hard-earned money to buy Internet data only to torment themselves with unhealthy content. There are some pages on social media you need to unfollow if you would maintain mental health (1 Corinthians 15:33).
Like my daughter, not everyone is privileged to have fathers in their lives who help their feeding (Proverbs 1:8-10). You need to take personal responsibility.
The reason God gives us shepherds is to lead us to our green pastures. It is to be responsible for our feeding as well as guide us to appropriate feeds. Healthy pastoring is healthy living (Psalm 23:2, Jeremiah 3:15).
To maintain spiritual and mental health, feed on the word of God and relate with the right people (Proverbs 13:20, Luke 4:4). Your physical health stems from your spiritual and mental health. Most of the sicknesses that people are dealing with today have their roots in their spiritual and mental life. It is easier to know someone who’s sick physically, but spiritual and mental sickness are not easily detectable (Proverbs 17:22).
‘Demola Awoyele
Lead Pastor,
Destiny Impact Church
Akure, Nigeria