Text: Daniel 1:5-16
Memory verse:
“Please test your servants for ten days, and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink.” Daniel 1:12
To understand a matter well, it’s always good to first take a journey to its beginning in order to discover the principles which you can adapt to your current situation. For example, Jesus corrected the people’s distorted marriage perspective by referencing the beginning (Matt 19:5-6).
Now, for our topic, let’s reference the beginning. “I have provided all kinds of grain and all kinds of fruit for you to eat; but for all the wild animals and for all the birds I have provided grass and leafy plants for food”—and it was done.” (Gen 1:29-30 GNT).
At the beginning, before the earth was corrupted with sin, God laid the principles of healthy eating. One of them is the principle of nutrition. His original plan was that man will be nourished through the nutrient-dense plant foods He had given rather than flesh. These include fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and legumes.
Flesh was first given as food to man after the flood and over consumption was discouraged (Gen 9:2-3; Prov 23:20).
If this was God’s original plan for our food, then it would be wise to honour our health by eating more of plant foods than flesh. This was Daniel’s diet for ten days that made him better than his colleagues who consumed the king’s delicacies. “Test us for ten days,” he said. “Give us vegetables to eat and water to drink. …When the time was up, they looked healthier and stronger than all those who had been eating the royal food.”
(Dan 1:12, 15 GNT).
Now, it’s not just about eating plant foods but eating them in their natural form. Malnutrition results from feeding the body with food which has been heated or processed to such a point that destroys its life. Dead food can’t rejuvenate and regenerate the body cells, rather, it causes sickness and disease. Thus, wise eating requires that you eat these plants in their natural state or with mild heating. Processed, refined and microwaved foods are all junks because all their health-giving nutrients have been destroyed. Friends, food processing extends the shelf life of foods but reduces health-life. Return to God’s original plan today.
Prayer points
1. Father, please, I receive Your grace to make changes necessary for my health in Jesus name.
2. Father, please, deliver me from procrastination and help me to take responsibility for my health in Jesus name.
Today’s declarations
1. I can’t continue with the usual eating habit and expect to see a different result.
2. I return to God’s original plan by eating more of nutrient-dense plant foods and in their natural forms and reducing processed, refined and microwaved foods and meat.
Contact: pastor@thf.org.ng