How to feed your soul

Do you feed your soul on a regular basis or is it starving for what it needs?

We single people can burn down because of the stresses and disappointments in our lives. In addition to the tension of the daily routine, we're each fighting our personal battle with loneliness, frustration, and bewilderment.

When you're feeling spiritual hunger, there are right ways and wrong ways to come back. Don't be fooled by the New Age quackery that's out there. Let's look at what really works.

Feed your soul or feed your body?

First, let's make sure of what's wrong. Sometimes you feel down and don't suspect it may be a physical problem. We singles are notorious for being unhealthy eaters. We eat too much of the wrong stuff and not enough of the right stuff. Or we go on a fad diet, not understanding that individual metabolisms react differently to such things. You may also feel burned out if you're not getting enough sleep, or too much sleep. Wanting to sleep all the time is a sign of depression and should be discussed with your doctor.

Anxiety and worry can also deprive you of a restful night's sleep. Put a couple of those open-eye nights in a row and you're walking around like a zombie.

A medical exam may be called for. Sure, you hate to spend the money, take the time, and go through the embarrassment and tests, but being checked out thoroughly can detect a hidden problem.

Feed your soul with stuff?

America's #1 pastime is not sports. It's shopping.

What's frightening is that as other countries improve their economies, their newly prosperous citizens rush to the malls and stores with credit cards to try to imitate us. If you don't live in the United States, let me give you some true advice:

Excessive shopping doesn't SOLVE problems; it CREATES them.

It only stands to reason. You can't fix a spiritual problem with a material solution. It just doesn't work, regardless of what advertisers tell you. That's the fallacy behind the phenomenon I call gift lift. You get a momentary jolt, like a burst of caffeine, but it doesn't last. That's why you have to keep buying and buying, like a drug addict going after a fix.

It takes strong willpower and a discerning mind to see through the commercials and ads that promise you'll feel better if you buy a certain product. The only one who will feel better is that company's shareholders when they look at their bottom line.

Be smart. Stuff can not feed your soul, despite what anyone tells you. That's one of the biggest lies out there, and you are too smart to fall for i

Feed your soul with the bread of life

If you've read these articles for a while, you know we always get down to the nitty-gritty toward the end. After 40 years of being a single person, I know what works, and I have nothing to gain by lying to you.

Here's the secret to feeding your soul:

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. (John 6:35, NIV)

You can try whatever else you want, but I'm here to tell you it won't work. You can only get the kind of spiritual sustenance you need from the one who made your soul. That's not me, or any guru out there. It's Jesus.

So if you haven't gone to him before and you're finally ready to try because nothing else has worked, how do you go about it? How do you "feed" on Jesus?

• Accept. Accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, if you haven't already. Here is a short, sweet guide on how to become a Christian.

• Pray. Prayer is your private hotline to heaven, and this phone's batteries never go dead and you never lose your signal. Jesus is our intercessor with God, which means he personally takes your request to his Father who can grant it. And, he puts a good word in for you. Check out these prayer tips on how to connect with the Lord.

• Read the Bible. This is my favorite way of feeding my soul, because it shows God in action. It tells you how God worked in people's lives in the past, just like he's working today. It feeds you hope where you used to have spiritual hunger. But please, please, please get yourself a good study Bible like the Life Application Study Bible. They are so much easier to understand that they make Bible reading a joy instead of a struggle.

• Meditate. Christian meditation is different from other kinds of meditation. It's basically thinking about Bible passages you have read, or quieting your mind to give God an opportunity to speak to you. You won't hear an audible voice, but you may get a prompting from the Holy Spirit or a new understanding of some problem. This is a time of solitude when you get alone with God. That means no iPod, phone, radio or television. I like to meditate while walking in a park or some serene natural setting.

• Join a Church. God wants us to worship him together. There's something about praying together, singing hymns together, and reading the Bible together that definitely will feed your soul. If you've never attended church before, try it. Let me assure you that you will be welcomed and made to feel at home. These are kind, good people who encourage one another. You will be blessed by going to church.

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