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Section 15—Diet and Health
313
expect to relish at first, food so different from that which they have
been indulging themselves to eat. If they cannot at first enjoy plain
food, they should fast until they can. That fast will prove to them of
greater benefit than medicine, for the abused stomach will find that
rest which it has long needed, and real hunger can be satisfied with
a plain diet. It will take time for the taste to recover from the abuses
which it has received, and to gain its natural tone. But perseverance
in a self-denying course of eating and drinking will soon make plain,
wholesome food palatable, and it will soon be eaten with greater
satisfaction than the epicure enjoys over his rich dainties.—4SG
130, 131.
Pray for Moral Courage
Whenever I have seen children feeding upon flesh-meats, since
the light was given me from heaven, I have felt that if the parents
only knew what they were doing they would fast and pray for moral
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courage and God-given wisdom and grace to do right. All who feel
their need of His Spirit to educate and discipline self and to properly
train their children, will deny self, and take up the cross and follow
Jesus.
For certain things fasting and prayer are recommended and ap-
propriate. In the hand of God they are a means of cleansing the heart
and promoting a receptive frame of mind. We obtain answers to our
prayers because we humble our souls before God. If our appetites
clamor for the flesh of dead animals, it is a necessity to fast and pray
for the Lord to give His grace to deny fleshly lusts which war against
the soul.
Feeding Upon Christ
There should be far less anxiety as to what we shall eat and what
we shall drink to gratify our fleshly appetites; but we may well en-
courage the appetite of the soul, and pray for especial enlightenment
upon the word of God, and eat and drink that word. Jesus says, “I
am that Bread of Life.” ...
We must be constantly meditating upon the word, eating it,
digesting it, and by practice, assimilating it, so that it is taken into