UN/Broken - Day 9

Luke 4:3-4
The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell  this stone to become bread.”
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on  bread alone.’
 
The appetite for food is something that we all  experience. We have to eat to survive and thrive. However, eating can become problematic. Eating  disorders or being overweight are relatively common  for the U.S. population. Not all are caused by  inappropriately turning to food for spiritual  fulfillment, but many likely are (Exline et al., 2016). Of course, the experience of eating can be spiritual in  nature, which is a good thing and a gift from God. It is  possible for an amazing meal to inspire the  participants to greater spiritual heights. Jesus enjoyed eating with his friends and talked about  banquets. However, eating cannot fill the emptiness  when we have a spiritual void and are searching for  the sacred, meaning, or purpose.
 
Religion psychologist Kenneth Pargament has  defined false gods as “inadequate substitutes of the  sacred that can…rush in to fill this spiritual void” (2007,  p. 140). Food can become a false god, probably for  some of us a lot of the time and for a lot of us some of  the time. Of course, we have to eat; hunger and the  need for food are inherent to life and bring us great
enjoyment. Still, it's good to remind ourselves of  Jesus’ words that the point of life lies elsewhere.

JOURNAL:
When are the times you are tempted to use eating  and drinking to fill a spiritual void in your life?