Sit down and eat

I have to imagine that everyone has experienced the torture of being at a thanksgiving dinner which is still in the process of being prepared and you are as hungry as a bear. The aroma from the kitchen can be noticed from the outside of the home. The agony comes by the fact that possibly you didn’t eat breakfast that morning, or breakfast was early and its 2:00 in the afternoon while the initial pains of hunger are knawing at your stomach and all you can think of is filling it up. Finally, after what seems an eternity, everyone is asked to come to the table. Thanks and praise is given to the one who provides all good things, and the meal begins. A quick 10 to 20 minutes later (depending on how much conversation has happened) a meal that took hours to prepare is gone and everyone, including yourself are satisfied.

Satisfaction or the act of contentment brings a definition of “ease of mind”. After the thanksgiving dinner is over, you are satisfied and you are no longer thinking about filling the void-you are content (of course if you’ve eaten too much, you long to get horizontal on some couch or easy chair to ease this new agony).

They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up the twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. Matthew 14:20 Jesus satisfied the hunger of the people when he fed the five thousand. But contentment is not only tied to physical food, we also need to be fed spiritually. The righteous eat to their hearts’ content, but the stomach of the wicked goes hungry. Proverbs 13:25 As believers, our table is never empty, our cupboard never bare. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. Psalm 107:8-9 Our Lord feeds us, but we must sit down and eat, we must in our thirst reach for the cup, in our hunger pick up the fork. And he said to me, “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the house of Israel.” So I open my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. Then he said to me, “Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.” so I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth. Ezekiel 3:1-3 In order to be effective for him and victorious in this life we must internalize God’s truth, make His truth who we are. We must eat-to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Ephesians 4:12-13 to become mature (reaching the goal for which you were created).

So as we sit down and eat, we can be encouraged in His promises. being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6

When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:4

He will change us, but we need to sit down and eat.

Change comes from vertical focus-

not horizontal!