Years ago there was a series of books called Chicken Soup for the Soul. They may still be around, I really don’t know, but when they first came out, I loved them. The idea behind the books was that they were filled with inspirational stories that would inspire and uplift our hearts. As time went on the publishers issued every variation on the book that they could possibly think of (and so diluted the brand – but that’s a discussion for another day), and heartwarming tales abounded. The idea was that if people felt better about life, that they would then live better lives. The inspiration from the stories would encourage the reader to live a life that would inspire others.
Scripture teaches us however that the publishers wasted a lot of time and effort. If they really wanted to feed the souls of others, all that was required was that they teach others to obey Christ. After all, Jesus said that His food was to do the will of the One who sent Him (John 4:34). As we emulate Him that should increasingly be our fuel too. We wait around hoping that we’ll feel good about our relationship with Christ – that our hearts will tell us when we are closer to Him and therefore more like Him – but Scripture tells us that doing comes first. We obey – then we feel satisified. We follow God’s commands – then we are energized in our relationship with Him. Feeding the soul isn’t something that we do in preparation for obeying God, obeying God is how our soul gets full.
May we all “go back for seconds” today!
