{"id":7543,"date":"2021-10-17T02:41:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-17T02:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=7543"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:34:38","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:34:38","slug":"spiritual-junkfood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=7543","title":{"rendered":"SPIRITUAL JUNKFOOD"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declared, &#8220;Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.&#8221; (Matt 5:6)<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Lord desires to fill us with true righteousness. Therefore, we need to be on guard against the cheap knock-off, self-righteousness.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If God&#8217;s righteousness is what truly satisfies our hunger and thirst for right relationship with Him and others, then self-righteousness is the spiritual equivalent of junk food.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/20211016_185551_20211016190844027-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"934\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dictionary.com&#8217;s definition is right on target for what I mean by &#8220;self-righteousness&#8221;: Being &#8220;confident of one&#8217;s own righteousness, especially when smugly moralistic and intolerant of the opinions and behavior of others.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What do you think? Does this analogy hold? I leave it to you to connect the dots between food and righteousness:<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 Junk food only resembles real food in that we put it in our mouths and chew it.<\/li>\n\n\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 Junk food starts off as real food, but is then put through a process that makes it the most unhealthy version imaginable, full of salt and fat and sugar.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 It is because of the bad ingredients &#8211; not in spite of them\u00a0&#8211; that we find junk food so irresistible.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 Junk food might give us some momentary jolt of energy, but provides nothing of lasting value.<\/li>\n\n\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 Preparing real food takes time and energy. Junk food is fast and easy.<\/li>\n\n\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 Real food is costly, especially if what we buy is organic and free of GMOs, hormones, antibiotics, preservatives, and corn syrup. Junk food is crazy cheap in comparison.<\/li>\n\n\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 Real food is necessary. Junk food is not only unnecessary, it is harmful in the long run.<\/li>\n\n\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 Indulging in junk food leaves us unsatisfied &#8230; and, ironically, craving MORE junk food.<\/li>\n\n\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 Junk food is about immediate satisfaction. Real food is about long-term health and well-being.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n<li>\u00a0 \u00a0 Real food has the power to heal our diseases. Junk food tends to exacerbate our diseases and sometimes even causes them.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n<li>Eating junk food can spoil our appetite for real food.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Any others I have missed?<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declared, &#8220;Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.&#8221; (Matt 5:6) The Lord desires to fill us with true righteousness. Therefore, we need to be on guard against the cheap knock-off, self-righteousness. If God&#8217;s righteousness is what truly satisfies our hunger and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7543"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7545,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7543\/revisions\/7545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}