There is a common phrase heard among Christians: “I want to be fed.”  Of course, this is meant in a spiritual sense (many churches nowadays have coffee shops, such as the church I am a part of, so rarely are there hungry people at church).  I want to look at this interesting phrase “I want to be fed”.

Wanting to be fed is a good thing, and hungering for good things is a good thing. Feeding on good things is a good thing.  But what if a person eats good, healthful food, and just keeps eating?  They have gone beyond the need for food and their stomach just can’t hold any more.  From this point forward, food no longer serves any purpose for this person as far as the food’s original purpose is concerned (to fill up, nourish, energize, satisfy).

In the same way, the person who says “I want to be fed” or “I need to go to a church where I am fed” is at risk of spiritually overeating.  They have a need to be spiritually fed, which we all do, but they never get full.  They continue to feed and keep packing on those spiritual calories without burning them off.  This sounds remarkably like an infant who does nothing but sit and feed all day.  However, with an infant, the calories produce incredible growth.  The baby grows up, rockets through adolescence, becomes an adult, and is able to feed their baby one day.  Point is, the baby doesn’t just keep feeding, the baby grows.  Go baby!!!

Is it possible we’ve missed the point on the word gluttony?  Its almost exclusively used to talk about people who eat too much physical food.  Obviously, God is concerned with how people steward the resources He has entrusted them with, and thus overeating physical food is poor stewardship and sinful, but what about gluttony from consuming spirituality?  One feels like they are never getting enough God even though they’ve been feasting for years.

Consider this: the reason you still feel hungry, or feel like you need to go somewhere different to be fed, is because Christians don’t get full by eating.  Christians get full by starving.  Christians get full by hungering and thirsting after righteousness, not a meal (read: sermon, worship music, etc.).  Being hungry and knowing Jesus Christ in the depths of that neediness, powerlessness, and weakness for Him alone, is the only way we will ever be fed.

God bless you.