The question is often asked, “Does God really care about how much I eat? Does overeating really bother him?”

Recently, I was struck by just how MUCH Jesus seems to care about meals. When I think about him attending the wedding meal at Cana in Galilee, or eating with “tax gatherers, prostitutes and thieves” and walking through the fields and munching on grain, when I remember that he did much of his ministry around a meal, well, I know that He cares about meals. In fact, I am blown away by the fact that after his resurrection, when he greeted some of the apostles on the beach, he made them breakfast! So, I guess I am finally able to wrap my mind around how God does care about food and meals generally. He definitely does.

Then when I think about how Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount “Do not worry about what you eat or drink or what you will wear…” I begin to get a grasp on how he doesn’t want these things to cause me worry.

When I diet (a thing of the long ago past, I am thankful to say) or over-eat (something that is more and more a thing of the past), *I* am caused grief…I worry. I either worry about what I WILL eat or about what I HAVE eaten!  He definitely doesn’t want that.

And, as I ook at some of the reasons I tend to eat more than my body needs, I see that there are characteristics in my life such as greed, lust…and even idolatry. Why do I eat more food than I need? For me, it is because I *want* it…or because there is an emotional need in my life that I am not going to God to have met. Either way…these aren’t godly behaviors.

In these cases, I am going my own way. When I choose my own way over God’s way, it *is* sin…and it grieves the heart of God and it is why Jesus went through so much….

He cares about when a sparrow falls to the ground and he says I am much more precious than any of them…so I know he cares about me intimately…that includes the things that concern me, that feed my soul, that feed my body…the temple of the Holy Spirit and enable me to operate to the maximum potential He intends!