Yesterday we began a discussion about looking at food from a spiritual point of view. Not looking at material food and trying to spiritualize it somehow. No-no… But we talked about spiritual food, the word of God, which nourishes us spiritually and meets human needs.

There is mega-attention given in society today to food from a material point of view,–what it contains, what it causes, the good, the bad, the ugly, and so on. But there is very little attention to food from a spiritual point of view. And this is the greater need.

Life is so much more than a conglomeration of carbohydrates, vitamins, proteins and amino acids. Life is spiritual. It’s sustained by Spirit, and is discovered in spiritual understanding.

When we are actively consuming spiritual truth, understanding our relationship to God better and finding peace about it, eating habits moderate, gluttony disappears, contentment settles in, and many more benefits appear that manifest themselves as healthy fit living.

Spiritual food is not material food looked at from a divine perspective. Spiritual food is spiritual truth, understanding, inspiration, enlightenment, divine consciousness and their kin.

When we take in spiritual food, we make better human choices and experience better effects.

For instance, my wife made this delicious “Clementine-vanilla bean quick bread” last weekend that came out of a Martha Stewart magazine. It was yummy. The problem was, I couldn’t stop with one piece. I wanted another and another and another… There was no satisfaction from eating it. In fact, each bite I ate, it made me want to eat more.

Has that ever happened to you?

It was a bit agonizing, because I began to reason, “What is the point? If it tastes really good, but I’m not satisfied after I eat a piece and only want more, was it really good for me?” I looked at the recipe and saw that it was loaded with sugar.

I did not eat endless pieces! I do have more dominion than that. But after a piece or two, I thought, I need to pray for spiritual contentment and specifically rebuke the belief that sugar has any kind of hold on my desires. I need to take in a heavy amount of spiritual truth to counteract this pull toward eating more of this sugar-laden bread.

I prayed to know that my contentment and happiness came from God, not from elated taste buds. I was already a complete whole being, feeling and expressing the fullness of God’s love, I affirmed, and found genuine happiness and contentment in knowing this truth. This truth was spiritual food, and sufficient to meet my need, I accepted.

A desire to keep eating the bread disappeared, and I was content without it.

And this is what I mean about consuming spiritual food and experiencing a good benefit from it. When we keep our thought inspired and enlightened we are much less likely to fall into mindless traps of the carnal mind that lead to poor eating habits and undesirable choices.

Contentment, joy, satisfaction, wholeness, fullness, health and fitness are qualities of God, expressions of divine Mind, and they come direct from God, not from anything we put in our mouth.

When we are filled with spiritual food—when our consciousness is filled up with heavenly inspiration—we won’t be reaching for something that cannot satisfy and mindlessly absorbing that which does us no good.

Are you reaching for spiritual food today?