Making Jesus Lord of our Appetites

“Everything is permissible for me— but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me —but I will not be mastered by anything” – 1 Corinth 6:12 (NIV)

If we do not make Jesus Lord of our appetites, they will control us and can distort our sense of judgement. Isaac clearly had a big appetite for tasty meaty food. It was not a big issue in his life but it was obviously something that had a hold on him. How else can you explain Gen. 25:27?

‘Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.’ (NIV)

When a man’s love for his son is based on his taste for wild game, then something is not quite right. When our appetites begin to control us then they are out of place. It is dangerous for anything other than the Lord to have a hold on us – even if such a thing is a legitimate pleasure. Paul said,

‘”Everything is permissible for me”—but I will not be mastered by anything.’ – 1 Corinth 6:12 (NIV)

It is wrong to allow even permissible things to gain mastery over us. It might be an otherwise legitimate pleasure which no one else calls sin, but which you know has mastered you. Often it is those little indulgences that are most dangerous for they seem so inconsequential. Indeed they have consequences for they erode power from our lives making us blunt in the spirit.

Isaac’s out-of-control taste for ‘bush meat’ (as we call wild game in Nigeria) must certainly have seemed inconsequential. Yet a careful reading of the scripture leaves us with no doubt that it affected him and his household negatively. For example, is it not possible that it was his preference for Esau over Jacob because of the ‘bush meat’ that created the atmosphere of rivalry between the two? Was it not because of a relationship with Esau that possibly had been built on his ability to please his father with ‘bush meat’ that caused Isaac to be unable  to rebuke him when he married not one but two heathen wives?! But all these are not as troubling as what we go on to read in Genesis 27:4:

‘Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die’ v.4 (NIV)

Note that this was the occasion of one of the most important assignments of the patriarchs – the passing of the blessing of the covenant to the next generation. This was one of those occasions when you want to be sure you don’t miss God. Yet on this occasion Isaac’s appetite took over. Did Isaac need to have had tasty food before giving the blessing or was it not attached as a condition just to gratify his appetite? Perhaps if he hadn’t been so distracted by his taste he would have been sensitive enough to God to know  that the younger had been chosen above the older son. Later on when Jacob blessed Ephraim and Manasseh, he was not confused as his father had been (see Gen. 48: 8-20).

If we don’t make Jesus the Lord of our appetites they will distract us. And as in Isaac’s case, it can manifest and block off God’s voice at a time when we cannot afford to miss God’s leading. I encourage you to pray and hand over that out-of-control appetite to God and begin to trust him and obey him as you cooperate with him to bring it under his Lordship.

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Comments? Questions? etc. If these messages have been helpful or unclear it would encourage us to hear from you, please write to chim_ibidun@hotmail.com
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PLEASE are you born again? It is not enough to believe in the existence of God, to go to church, or be interested in spiritual things. Jesus said “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Jesus died to deliver you from sin so that you can come to God. (John 3:16) If you ask him to forgive you and give you a new heart he will. (Acts 2:38; Romans 10:9-11).Try it. I’d love to hear from you @ chim_ibidun@hotmail.com
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Chim’sWRITE are regular articles on Christian living and cross-cultural missions from Chimezie Onyebilanma a cross-cultural missionary with Calvary Ministries (CAPRO). CAPRO is an indigenous African non-denominational cross-cultural  mission agency involved in reaching the remaining unreached peoples in 22 countries of Africa and the Middle East as of present. CAPRO is involved in missions mobilization, training, and research as well as church-planting and mercy ministries (literacy, rural development, primary health-care, relief and rehabilitation). CAPRO is a faith mission, both the ministry and its missionaries depend on God’s provision through the giving of his people. None of its missionaries are salaried. All gifts are used as designated.

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