How Can I Resist?

Blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear.

Matthew 13:16

“That’s impressive!” my husband exclaimed as I scarfed down the remaining morsels of the enormous entree I had ordered. I couldn’t seem to get enough to eat! The more I ate, the more weight I lost. Sounds okay, right? That’s my kind of dieting! However, I gradually realized something might be very wrong.

I was determined to get through the hectic Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays before going to the doctor. By that time I resembled the gaunt Holocaust victims I’d seen in pictures. I had lost 30 pounds.

I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, which basically means my body doesn’t produce enough insulin. Without that little hormone, my body couldn’t use the vast quantities of food I was ingesting.

Bear with me for a quick biology lesson. The carbohydrates from the food we eat breaks down into glucose, which is the food that energizes our cells. Insulin carries the glucose in the bloodstream to the cells in our bodies so they can function.

Without insulin, glucose builds up in the bloodstream and causes a variety of problems, ultimately resulting in death. Before insulin was discovered in 1921, a diagnosis of diabetes was a death sentence. Insulin allows diabetics to live a long, somewhat normal life.

The Holy Spirit is to the church what insulin is to the body. Jesus said the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, will take the very words of the Father and transmit them to us (John 16:13). Without the Holy Spirit, we have no chance of understanding spiritual things.

Resisting the Holy Spirit keeps God’s life-giving word from becoming a part of us, leaving our spirits severely malnourished and emaciated. But submitting to his guidance allows God’s word to become a part of us, nourishing, energizing and fattening us spiritually.

As Jesus said in Matthew 13:16, we are indeed blessed when our eyes can see and our ears can hear. Then we know our Holy Spirit insulin is functioning effectively in our lives.

Terri