Is It Really Sin?

Is It Really Sin?

Image Source: iStockPhoto

Image Source: iStockPhoto

Is overeating really sin?  Is that one extra bite rebellion against the Lord?

I really struggled with those questions.  It was one of the things in the Thin Within material that I had a hard time grasping.  To be honest, over the years, when I would get to about Day 7 in the Thin Within book, I wouldn’t be able to push through any further.  I really didn’t think I needed God’s forgiveness or grace when I took that one extra bite or overate.   I would think, “Come on!  It’s just food!  It’s just one extra bite!  What’s the big deal?  Doesn’t God have other things to be concerned about?  Why does this have to be so spiritual?”

And then my eyes were opened.

I had been praying about this and asking the Lord what His truth was about it in my life.  Then one evening, I really wanted to make popcorn to eat during a movie my husband and I were going to watch.  I knew I wasn’t hungry for the popcorn, but I just kept on thinking about it.  Finally, I decided I was going to make popcorn.  As I poured the freshly popped popcorn into a big wooden bowl, I heard the Holy Spirit gently ask me if I would not eat the popcorn since I wasn’t hungry.  And like an annoying fly buzzing around, I flicked that request off.  How could I resist now?  Oh, the delicious scent of hot-buttered popcorn!  And then, as I scooped some popcorn into my smaller bowl, the Holy Spirit asked me again if I would refrain from eating the popcorn.  Flick!  No thank you, I’m going to EAT this popcorn, thank you very much!  So I sat down, began the movie, and about 2/3 of the way through my bowl of popcorn the Holy Spirit asked again, gently, if I would stop eating since I wasn’t hungry.  Obediently, I put the bowl down and didn’t take one more bite.

He was so gentle.  I was so rebellious.  I lusted after that popcorn.  I hardened my heart against the Holy Spirit’s guidance.  I was like that Israelite demanding my way as I puttered around in the wilderness; just give me the leeks and onions!  I didn’t want God’s manna or His provision.  I wanted MY way in MY time!  In essence, I wanted to go back to that slavery.  Instead of deliverance and freedom, I wanted the easy way out.

Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. Hebrews 4:7b

I don’t want to harden my heart.  I want to love the Lord with all of my heart, mind and soul.  I don’t want to hold anything back.  I have to die to myself, to my fleshly, selfish desires in order to live for Him.

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.  Romans 13:14

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

Matthew 22:37

 

And it was at that moment I realized that I am not honoring the Lord when I take that extra bite knowing I don’t need it or when I overeat.  I was placing food over Him.

This has been a hard truth to swallow.  I would rather not digest it.  I want to be in denial, but I clearly saw my rebellion that day when I hardened my heart.  I chose to fall into temptation—to sin.  Temptations will come, but I had a choice to make.  I chose to follow my flesh instead of following after the Spirit.  God provided a way out of the temptation, but I chose to take the other path.

When we are hungry, we eat.  Food is fuel for our body.  So what happens when we consistently go outside of God’s bounds of eating outside of hunger?  We gain weight, we feel stuffed, we don’t like the way we look or feel, etc.

Why would we need food outside of hunger?  What are we truly “hungry” for when we want to eat when we aren’t physically hungry?

I could replace that “hunger” with food, alcohol, sex, drugs, or any other substance or addiction, but it will never fulfill what I’m truly hungry for.  As Heidi says, only God can fill that God-size hole that needs Him in our heart.

Maybe you are reading this and you might think that this doesn’t make sense for you.  Maybe you feel that it’s legalistic to say one extra bite is sin.  I would encourage you to ask the Lord about this in your own life.  Ask Him to show you the truth about this for you.  Maybe you aren’t at that place in your journey where it’s clear.  Maybe the Lord is working on other areas right now.

Another thing I do is I check the motivation of my heart.  Something I think about often is something that is asked in the book Intuitive Eating: would I deny a bride and groom their bites of wedding cake after the cake cutting if they weren’t truly hungry?  It’s not their motive to indulge.  There have been times after a meal at a friend’s house where I’m not really hungry anymore, but I will eat a little serving of dessert.  I will check in with the Lord and there are times where He says that it’s ok, that my heart is in the right place.  But I really think this is something personal between you and the Lord.  This isn’t an excuse to eat whenever you feel like it.  It’s not to justify eating another bite when you know God is saying it’s time to stop.  You will know because the Holy Spirit will show you.

God is bringing me to a place of wanting to honor Him more and more with eating.  I want to glorify Him in all that I do.  My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.  I don’t want to follow after the flesh.  I don’t want to lust after food.  I don’t want to harden my heart.  I want to follow the Spirit and grow closer to Him.

 

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. Romans 8:5

 

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.  It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.  Titus 2:11-12

 If we do choose to purposely overeat, we can ask the Lord to forgive us.

“The surest way to return to the path of God’s provision is by repentance.  As we observe, we identify the truth about our behavior and agree with God that a correction is in order.  We then confess the truth we observe, and identify the faulty thinking and fleshly behaviors.  He further places with us a desire to make the godly correction.  This is repentance, and it results in returning to the path of God’s provision where we are filled with peace, joy, and rest” (Thin Within page 248-249).

And knowing that God has forgiven us as we repent, we can continue on our journey of honoring Him.  There’s no need to beat ourselves up with the club of condemnation.  You don’t have to eat with the attitude of, “Well, I messed up, I guess I will just eat whatever I want, whenever I want the rest of the day.”  This isn’t a diet we’ve gotten off track with or have eaten up all of our daily calories, points, fat grams, carbohydrates, etc.  This is observing that we’ve overeaten, repenting, and then continuing on the path of God’s provision.  And then you just wait until you are hungry again to eat.  I find this so refreshing!

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.  Romans 8:1

There are times I find myself being tempted to eat when I’m not hungry.  I’m learning to ask God for help during those times.  And He is always willing.  We can call upon Him!

 I will love You, O Lord, my strength.  The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.  I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies.  Psalm 18:1-2

How about you?

Where do you find your thoughts when you think about overeating or one extra bite as sin?  I want to encourage you to ask the Lord what this looks like for you.  Are you eating because you are trying to fulfill a hunger only God can fill?  Do you find yourself lusting after food and eating with a rebellious attitude?  Ask the Lord to show you: He will!  And He won’t just stop there, He will show you how you can turn your eyes from lust to fixing your eyes upon Jesus!

Written by: Christina

Bratty Eating

Image Source: iStockPhoto

Image Source: iStockPhoto

I am a brat.

There. I have said it.

It’s true, too.

When I get mad at a family member (maybe sometimes even when I get mad at a mean church lady), I want to eat to “get back at them.”

This is just silly.

Stupid.

Ridiculous!

But somehow it has fueled much of my eating outside of 0 and 5 for years.

I think it began when I was a kid and my parents would abuse me over food doing all kinds of desperate things to try to get me to eat foods they felt I needed to eat and NOT to eat others. As soon as the ordeal was over, I would sneak cookies. Or ride my bike to the liquor store to buy candy bars with money I stole from my dad’s change stash. (True confessions!) I would do other things, too, just to “get back at them.”

So I guess I brought this behavior into my adulthood!

I became aware of it when I was a mother of a relatively young, rebellious pre-adolescent (who shall remain nameless). Said pre-adolescent with special needs (no less) required a great deal of me and there were times when I just had a major melt-down tantrum of my own. In a huff, I would grab the container of frosting (bag of cookies, chips, ice cream carton…whatever…it made no difference what) a spoon (if needed) and shut myself into the bathroom where I would relish my “I can TOO do what I want–you are NOT the boss of me–get back at them” eating or “Bratty Eating” for short.

Can you relate?

If I am honest, although said child 🙂 no longer lives here…in fact, my “nest” is pretty empty…I still can find myself doing “Bratty Eating.”

In those moments, when I pull out my truth cards or rehearse in my mind the things that I know are true, I come up with quite the arsenal to defeat this “Bratty Eating” and the bratty attitude that fuels it, too!

When I look at the Lord I serve and what he was called to experience when he walked the dirt of this earth, I realize that he was called to suffer. How can I expect to be called to something different? A life of ease? Really? I think I deserve that? And when I bump up against someone who bugs me, I think I should eat? Hmm…. seems to me I need to grow up just a bit! I am so thankful that my God is in the business of doing that very thing—growing his children, including me. Funny thing is…he often uses trials to do it! But he provides everything I need for life and godliness if I call on Him.

How About You?

Do you ever engage in “Bratty Eating?” If so, do you know what situations or individuals typically set you off? What truths can you cling to so that you can defeat this tendency?

What’s It Gonna Take? Ending Rebellion…

Image Source: Creation Swap

Image Source: Creation Swap

We can keep on looking for a magic bullet.

We can keep reading the latest greatest “non-diet,” “intuitive eating” material on the web, but there comes a point in time when we have to live up to the light we have been given.

Has that time come for you?

I get emails from people all the time…many are involved in the Thin Within Facebook Accountability Group, the regular Thin Within Facebook page, have frequented the Thin Within forums on an off for years, done all the workbooks, read Thin Within and Thin Again. Yet they still struggle with obedience. They still are frustrated by themselves. Maybe struggle implies more challenge then there has been. Some of us, don’t even put up a fight against the gluttony that sucks us in. We just roll over and give in to the desire.

What’s it gonna take to for us to stop it? To END THE REBELLION?

I guess another question would be “What’s REALLY holding you (me) back?”

With the way I have been this past week (and longer), I know what is in this Sound Cloud file holds the antidote for what I suffer from. I would wager might for you, too:

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/103612488″ iframe=”true” /]

For Your Consideration:

1. Have you read a lot of Thin Within material and done a lot of the workbooks or bible studies? Have you tried the online resources (of course you have if you are here at this website! LOL!). Do you really–in your heart of hearts–feel like you lack knowledge? Is there really anything more that more inspiration could offer you? Or is it time to live according to the light you already have?

2. Can you do what the audio suggests at the end…open to Psalm 30 or Isaiah 30 and pull out attributes of God or answers to this question: “What is God like and/or what has He done for people?” Can you praise him out loud for those attributes? Can you find three gifts that God has blessed you with in this momentyes…even if your husband has just announced he is leaving, even if your daughter has admitted she is pregnant, even if you just got the news that you have cancer, even if your job is flushed because of your company’s “downsizing.” No matter what…can you find the gifts that God has offered you in this day, write them down and, out loud, thank him for them?

3. Are you willing to give THIS a try? Not another new bible study. Not another new accountability group, but the daily practice of praise and gratitude…and just see if it might not make a difference in the rebellion that has been living in your heart?

4. Do an experiment this weekend. Practice praise and gratitude this weekend. Build your God List. Use it for a Praise Fest. Keep a running list of the gifts God has given you. Speak these truths about God’s character and goodness OUT LOUD. See if, when you do this, you still have the same challenges in your eating…can you praise God at the same time you eat more food than he calls you to eat?

Let us know how it goes! Share your thoughts and insights here!

SATURATED with TRUTH!

Image Source: Stock Exchange

Image Source: Stock Exchange

Have you ever died a piece of cloth? It is so important to be sure that the entire thing is completed saturated. If it isn’t, the change will be inconsistent or mottled, at best.

I want my heart, mind and life to be “dyed” with truth–totally 100% SATURATED.

I was struck–even in the middle of my tizzy fit–by how many times verses from Romans 8 are quoted to me. I have to admit…there are times when it makes me roll my eyes. Really? Someone is going to quote “God works all things together for good”…aGAIN?  Or “We are more than conquerors!” “Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ!” or ” There is no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ.”

Really, when you think about it, Romans 8 may be one of the most quoted chapters in all of Scripture.

So, even with an attitude, I wondered with my journal and bible open to Romans 8, what TRUTH would I believe if I believed ONLY what Romans 8 has to say? This is the list I came up with:

  1. I am not condemned (v. 1)
  2. I am free from the law of sin and death (v.1)
  3. The righteous requirements of the law have been fully met in me (v. 4)
  4. I have my mind set on what the Spirit desires (v. 5)
  5. I have life and peace (v. 6) <–an important one for me since I tend to make peace and idol if left to my own devices!
  6. I am controlled by the Spirit (v. 9)
  7. I belong to Christ (v. 9)
  8. Christ is in me (v. 10)
  9. I am led by the Spirit of God (v.14)
  10. I am a child of God (v. 14)
  11. I received a Spirit of sonship (v. 15)
  12. I am God’s child. He is my Abba Daddy (vs. 15, 16)
  13. I am an heir of God (v. 17)
  14. I share in his suffering (v. 17) <— This made me wonder how much of my suffering in my current trials are my own doing and not about suffering with Christ at all?
  15. I will share in His glory (v. 17)
  16. There is a glory ahead that far outweighs my present suffering (v. 18)
  17. The Spirit helps me in my weakness (v. 16)
  18. The Spirit prays for me when I don’t know how/what to pray (v. 26)
  19. The Spirit prays according to God’s will (v. 27)
  20. God works all things for good for me (v. 28)
  21. I love God (v. 28)
  22. I have been called according to God’s purpose (v. 28)
  23. He has predestined me (v. 30)
  24. He has called me (v. 30)
  25. He has justified me (v. 30)
  26. He has glorified me (v. 30)
  27. God is FOR me (v. 31)
  28. God gave His son for me (v. 32)
  29. God graciously gives me all things! (v. 32)
  30. Jesus prays for me (v. 34)
  31. Nothing can separate me from God’s love (vs. 35, 39)
  32. I am more than a conqueror! (v. 37)

What, then, shall I say in response to this? (v. 31)

Truly… what would happen for me…for you…if we believed even one third of this list? How might it affect our eating? I know it would affect mine. I didn’t get to carry 100 extra pounds on my frame twice just by eating foods that sounded good. I ate because I was resentful and bitter, because I wanted to celebrate, commiserate. I ate for holidays, I ate for vacations, I ate after vacations and after holidays. I ate because of nice things said to me and mean things said to me. In short, I ate for a million lies that I believed…that somehow food was going to make whatever it was better. LIE.

So, any one of those statements above, could be like a sword (of the Spirit, the Word of God) challenging the right of the lie to exist in my life.

How About You?

Might some of these truths in the list above make good material for truth cards? 🙂

What impact would it have on your eating if you believed Romans 8?

Overcome the “Failure” and Some Blog “Business”

rebelliousredhead

Photo Courtesy of iStockPhoto

When I saw this image, it totally reminded me of ME! She has that “I can TOO eat this if I want!” rebellious look about her. AND she is redheaded and freckled like yours truly. Do you ever feel this way? 🙂 I hope not! But if you do, I am in company with you. I praise God that he is at work in me, though, and the moments when I feel this way are fewer and fewer! YAY, God!

I want to cover a lot of ground today. This post includes:

  1. A Video about Overcoming Failure Eating
  2. Announcement: Who is the winner of this week’s drawing
  3. Updated Bible Study schedule
  4. Poll asking you for what you would like to study next.

Video About Failure Eating – If you subscribe via email. please visit the blog to see the video.

Even if you haven’t been doing the study with us, you can probably relate to a day when you gave in and ate outside of 0 and 5. You may have given up for  the day, not even trying any more to maintain your boundaries. This is NOT uncommon! This short video is an option for what to do instead!  I hope it helps:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zhxwI2qF80?rel=0&w=640&h=480

Now, on to Blog Business! 🙂

Winner of This Week’s Drawing

The drawing this week is a bit…well…unusual. I prayed as is my practice and my hand landed on NATALIA! She won the week of coaching week before last. So, if Natalia would like one of the prizes, she will get one.

But it also seemed like I should reach in again…so I did. We have two winners. 🙂

The second winner is Lesley UK. 😀

CONGRATULATIONS!!! I will send you both an email and you can let me know which of the prizes you would like:

  • A Thin Within book (donated by Joe Donaldson of the Thin Within ministry)
  • A Hunger Within book (donated by Arthur and Judy Halliday)
  • A week of One-on-One Coaching (donated by yours truly)

Schedule

This is what is ahead for the remaining weeks of our Weight Loss Bible Study:

  • Evaluation: How are you doing? Use this worksheet to find out.  Week 5 March 31-April 6
  • Emotional Eating: “This will make me feel better.” Week 5 March 31-April 6
  • Losing-Weight-is-Hard Eating: “I’ll start again tomorrow.” Week 6 April 7 – 13
  • Hopeless Eating: “I’ll never get over this. I might as well eat.” Week 6 April 7 – 13
  • Good Food Eating: Hey, that looks good. I should eat it. Week 7  April 14-20
  • Bad Scale Eating: I didn’t lose weight. I might as well eat. Week 7 April 14-20
  • Social Eating: She’s eating. I should eat. Week 8 April 21-27
  • Preventative Eating? I have to write this one up if we are going to look at it, but I think it bears doing! Week 8.

Then I will probably have a wrap up during a week 9. A chance for us to debrief about some things and a looking forward to what might be next.

What Do You Want To Do Next?

What’s next? Well, let me know what YOU would like to see! 🙂 Here is a poll to help me figure that out. 🙂 This is the first time I have tried this “polls” feature, so here’s hoping it works!

[polldaddy poll=6998572]

Practical Questions:

You may see by now that I like to end most of the blog posts with a “bringing it home” set of questions. So let me ask you: What practical steps can you take today to maintain your 0 – 5 eating boundaries? What have you learned during the past month of our study that really stands out as something you can apply today? 🙂