The media franchise Eat This, Not That is dedicated to helping people make simple food choices that keep their bodies healthy and well-nourished. It can help us avoid empty calories and pay dividends over our lifetime. The same is true for our souls.

What are you feeding your soul? a few simple choices can nourish a healthy soul and energize every area of our lives.

I don’t understand why you spend your money for things that don’t nourish or work so hard for what leaves you empty. Attend to Me and eat what is good; enjoy the richest, most delectable of things.

Isaiah 55:2 Voice

God tells us that if we pay attention to our relationship with him, he will satisfy us and our lives will be filled with everything that is not only good, but even extravagant.

Choose to be still, not to be anxious

What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? [23] All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.

Ecclesiastes 2:22-23 NIV
  • Is your overscheduled life exhausting your soul? Have you scheduled so many other things that you no longer have time for God?
  • When can you take time to relax and let down with God?
  • Are you anxiously striving for things in life that leave you empty and worn out?
  • When we focus on God, he helps us focus our lives on the things that produce meaning and real fulfillment.

“Be still, be calm, see, and understand I am the True God. I am honored among all the nations. I am honored over all the earth.”

Psalm 46:10 Voice
  • How much are you calm and still with God every day?
  • To really see and hear God, we need to slow our minds, emotions, and bodies down. God and his Word feed our souls, but we need to be in a space where we can really hear him.

Choose relationship not religion

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. [2] People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, [3] without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, [4] treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— [5] having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 NIV
  • Do you try to follow all of the rules and do everything just right?
  • When we focus on the form of Christianity and try to behave the way we think appropriate, we end up having no power and feeling very empty.
  • Do you pursue open relationships with God and people?
  • The power of being a Christian is being transparent and known. This enables us to be close to God and build meaningful relationships with people.

Choose purpose not survival

Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. [35] You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest.

John 4:34-35 NLT
  • Is your soul being nourished by living for your purpose?
  • Jesus said that his nourishment, his energy, came from living for the purpose God had for him.
  • When we live for our purpose, it is energizing and satisfying for our soul.
  • How do you feel when your soul is being fed by living for your God-given purpose?

A thief has only one thing in mind—he wants to steal, slaughter, and destroy. But I have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect—life in its fullness until you overflow!

John 10:10 TPT
  • Do you believe that with God you can live for more than just surviving?
  • Do you believe God is working to give you everything you need in life?
  • Do you believe God can give you so much passion, energy, and love that it just overflows throughout your life?
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This article was created by a member of the Deep Spirituality editorial team.

Deep Spirituality logo

This article was created by a member of the Deep Spirituality editorial team.

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Choose This, Not That: Empty Pursuits vs. Pursuing God 6