Where Do You Get Your Energy?

     We have been talking about water and how necessary it is to our health and quality of life. We are looking at the things that we drink in the place of our life giving water. We covered pop and how it gives no benefit to the body. The other drinks we will cover, do offer us some benefits but when we consume too much it starts to have a negative effect. Also, the main issue is that it keeps us from drinking what our body really needs which is water!

     How many times have you or someone you know said, “I just can’t get going until I have had my coffee!” Actually, Shonda Pierce calls coffee the ‘Christian's Drug of Choice’. We feel we must have our caffeine and coffee is a great source of it. There are 80-130 mg. of caffeine in just one cup of coffee. Those that don’t like coffee get their caffeine in tea or new to our culture, energy drinks. Our coffee and tea stimulates us, awakens us, and gives us a needed boost. Today we have choices like never before. We can get our coffee in thousands of flavors, plain, with half-n-half, with froth, with flavors, hot, cold, or frozen. We now have fancy names for our coffee: cappuccino, espresso, latte, frappacino, and mocha. Even tea has been expanded. We have different flavors, iced, hot, with spices and fruit. We have black tea, green tea, white tea, and regular tea. We have it bottled in many choices. A few years ago the first energy drink came out which was Red Bull. Now we have a wide variety of choices and many of these drinks are not only exploding with caffeine but they have extremely large doses of sugar.
     Today there is much debate among health experts as to the value of our coffee or caffeine. It has been labeled the culprit of many health problems for years but now the research is showing some great benefits to drinking coffee. However, all experts say it has to be in moderation. The more we drink, the more it messes up our hormones which helps create weight issues. It affects our sleep and even plays a part in depression. Caffeine does give us the boost we feel we need to function but we must remember it is only temporary. It makes our body cycle go up and down. Probably the worst thing about caffeine is that it actually adds to dehydration. We must drink more water to compensate for each cup of caffeine we drink.
     With the stresses of life and the schedules we keep, we need to take some time for us. Time to rejuvenate us! These are the things that keep us going. We all have our hobbies or interests; sports for all ages, shopping, collecting, reading, scrap booking, hiking, running, etc. These things are good for us and I am in no way saying we shouldn’t have these in our life. However, we must consume them in moderation. When our interests keep us from the Living Water, when it makes us too busy to spend time with God, then it is not in moderation. When we focus more on our hobbies than we do on God, we are out of balance. I have seen so many people give up church and fellowship with their Christian family for their hobbies and sports. When they do that, they find themselves needing to consume more Living Water. Jesus Christ can rejuvenate us. When He does, it satisfies. It gives us nothing but benefits. Commit today to never consume more hobbies and interest than Living Water.

“For my people have committed two evils, they have forsaken me, the Fountain of living water and they have hewn for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns which cannot hold water.”

Jeremiah 2:13