Watch What You Watch, Soul Food In This Season - Joy Stevens

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness” Matthew 6:22-23

When I go shopping, I buy what I feel like. If I feel like buying chocolate, chances are I will buy a nice block (or two) of creamy Lindt Mint chocolate. Whatever I buy is what my household will have, so it’s important I am intentional with the things I bring into my home. 

If this is true for my grocery shopping, what more the condition of our hearts?

Despite what society says, the music, movies and media we consume do influence our spiritual and emotional health, and until I had this revelation, I didn’t take it seriously...

The health of my relationships, emotional and spiritual are all dependent on what I feed my soul. And to be honest, before this revelation, just like most people I enjoyed the occasional Netflix binge and wasn't too guarded on the music I listened to. I didn’t actively seek ungodly content, but I wasn’t intentional about cutting it out of my life.

A few years ago at a young adults camp, Pastor Jemima spoke on the importance of being careful about what we watch. She said these simple words which pierced my spirit, “What you see affects the way you think. You are a vessel and what you consume is exactly what comes out of you”.

I began to realise that this was very true in my life.

RELATIONSHIPS

What we consume plays a massive role in the health of our relationships! What enters our mind becomes our heart posture, and from the heart all life flows. Aside from giving us unrealistic expectations of love and friendship, popular culture can set your heart’s desires in a way that aren’t aligned with the will of God for your life in that time.

EMOTIONS

In Matthew, the writer talks about how our eyes are the lamps of our bodies. In simpler terms, they are a gateway to our souls. When you find fear, insecurity and comparison coming out of you, check what’s going into you! The things we listen to, form our language and what we believe! This will always bear fruit in our emotions. When I began to guard my eyes and ears from things that weren’t nourishing my spirit, comparison literally flew out the window!

SPIRITUAL

The most remarkable change in myself was when I began to cut out the things that weren’t feeding my soul, I became more sensitive to the Holy Spirit! There was more to access when I reorganised my priorities and put Him at the centre.

Perhaps in this season you are now working from home, or homeschooling your children. Maybe you finally have free time and are enjoying being at home or your routine hasn’t changed much at all; it is vital that you are intentional with what you are feeding your soul. A global pandemic has forced the world to temporarily pause, but soon we will all hit play again. What are you leaving this season with? How are you going to feed your heart?

Written By Joy Stevens

Joy is married to Joshua and is on team at Kingdomcity.