I have just finished leading a small group of wonderful ladies through Taste for Truth, a weight loss Bible study by Barb Raveling. I highly recommend this study. I believe it is best to go through it with some friends. The daily scripture reading and writing has opened me up to more healing by God, my Great Physician. He is so good and patient with us, His children. The things He wants to teach us take as much time as it takes. He is patient and He is teaching me patience during this lifelong journey.
On day 26 we talked about idols. I know that many of us, especially as Jesus followers, don’t have statues that we bow down to, but I know for me that I have idols. Food, for example has been an idol. My compulsive thinking about my weight and body has been an idol. Dieting has definitely been an idol. When I used to start a new diet, I tried so hard to be righteous in bowing down to the idol of the perfect diet that was going to take me to the perfect body size and health and vitality!! Sadly, what happens when I bow to an idol, the idol lets me down. They have no power. They are inanimate objects. We were asked in our study: According to the following Bible Verses, what do you have to be careful of when you really love something like food? I want to share with you the things that the Holy Spirit laid on my heart.
In Jeremiah 2:11-13 he asks, “Has a nation ever exchanged its gods? Yet my people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols. Be horrified at this, heavens; be shocked and utterly appalled. This is the LORD’s declaration. For My people have committed a double evil: They have abandoned Me, the Fountain of Living Water, and dug cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that cannot hold water. When I love food, or other gods, I am pouring my life into something that is cracked: those things don’t hold water! They bring hurt and destruction. And I have abandoned the One who heals and gives me Living Water.
Isaiah 44:17 says, “He makes a god or his idol with the rest of it (wood and things man-made is the example in previous verses). He bows down to it and worships; he prays to it, “Save me, for you are my god.” Is this not what I do when I run to food to numb or stuff feelings that I don’t want to feel? I make it (the food) a god and I want it to save me from my thoughts and emotions. The food fog sets in and I am lost in my ability to deal with what is going on; let along the ability to take those things to my Abba Father!
I love 1 Corinthians 6:12 that tells me that, “Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is helpful. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be brought under the control of anything.” When food is my god, it controls me. I push the Holy Spirit aside and I let an inanimate object take control of me and then I eat it! The Holy Spirit is my Comforter, my guide in this Jesus following life that I am living. Yet, I push Him aside and say this thing, this food that is drawing me to it life a moth to a light is better for me than the perfect healing that I am being drawn into by the Holy Spirit. Lord, may I taste and see that You are good!!
Let’s face it…food numbs…and food brings about a fog in our minds that keeps us from dealing with the things that the LORD God wants us to deal with (with Him and through His strength). I’ve recently been given mercy to deal with the things I was numbing. At this writing, I am not being controlled by any food items. It took work on my part, but I did it and He is healing me.
What about you dear reader? Is food still an idol? Are you still running to it for numbing or stuffing of feelings you don’t want to deal with? Jesus asked the invalid at the pool of Bethesda (John 5:1-14), “Do you want to get well?” I believe you do, or you wouldn’t be reading this blog. It takes work. When you eat 0 to 5, all the feelings and emotions that have been stuffed and numbed come back to the surface. The tools to take them to the feet of Jesus are there in Thin Within/Hunger Within and Barb Raveling’s books. You too can be set free!!
I used to associate “numbing” with alcohol or pills….never food. The more I do Thin Within, and read blogs like this one, I’m seeing the power that food can have over us as a means of escape. Great post! Thanks for sharing your heart.
Thank you Karen! It is amazing what becomes clear when the food fog is lifted and burned off through the Son!!
This was a great reminder, Deanna….something I also wrestle with. I did Dee Brestin’s Idol Lies study this summer….so eye opening and so convicting! Thank you for sharing your struggle. Love your insight!
Excellent post, Deanna! Thank you so much for bringing to the forefront a very real and scary idea: that I am practicing adultery when I abandon my God and turn to food. May your thoughts stay with me throughout this day!
We never want to come right out and admit that we are ignoring the Holy Spirit so we can go to our idol, because then we would be admitting we are blatantly ignoring God. That’s scary! But, in order to be free we have to walk in truth, and that’s the truth. Thank you for the reminder of God’s grace, and that He does want to help us break free from the idols in our lives. I really appreciated the honesty and truth backed up by the word.
Wow! I am so glad I found this link on FB tonight.
I just walked out of a Weight Watchers meeting frustrated beyond belief. I have cancelled my membership there. I have the Thin Within book. I pulled it out and I am starting to read it tonight.
I never thought of food “numbing” me. I always thought of that as being associated with over drinking and drugs. But of course, I sit feeling righteous,” I over eat, I don’t get drunk.” Wow! This has knocked me down. I need to get this right. Thank you for your perfect timing. Or rather,this was God’s timing. You were his tool.
Again Thanks.
Beth, I didn’t write this blog, but I could have. I had signed up with Weight Watchers this summer because it’s been helpful in previous years. However, I didn’t want to fool with counting calories and points etc. I am amazed at the success I’ve had with Thin Within. It’s not a bandaid to help me lose weight. It’s a lifestyle. And like you, I always thought I was numbing myself with food. Never thought of myself as an emotional eater. Boy, was I wrong. I pray the Lord uses TW workbook truths to impact your life forever!!
Thank you. I notice a lot that I am stuffing down food and sweetened coffee instead of going to God. I have been fearful of going to God ever since all these curses hit me when I did WD. I listened to one of the videos with Heidi and she talked about how another program talked about how you are not in a 70 year job interview to prove to God to allow you to get into heaven, but our salvation is a gift. That hit me really hard, because in another program I believed I would go to hell if I didn’t go growl to growl with no mistakes. How can this approach even be right when the bible talks about God’s people feasting sometimes. I really like this posting. It was what I really wanted to hear. I am now 45# heavier then I use to be a lot because I was living with the guilt of the other program and also felt like life was too much for God to handle, but now I am feeling better that maybe now I can reach out to Him and ask Him, as He has recently lead me to heal me of my eating disorder. May we all be successful in TW. Thanks for letting me vent.
Thank you. I notice a lot that I am stuffing down food and sweetened coffee instead of going to God. I have been fearful of going to God ever since all these curses hit me when I did WD. I listened to one of the videos with Heidi and she talked about how another program talked about how you are in a 70 year job interview to prove to God to allow you to get into heaven, but our salvation is a gift. That hit me really hard, because in another program I believed I would go to hell if I didn’t go growl to growl with no mistakes. How can this approach even be right when the bible talks about God’s people feasting sometimes. I really like this posting. It was what I really wanted to hear. I am now 45# heavier then I use to be a lot because I was living with the guilt of the other program and also felt like life was too much for God to handle, but now I am feeling better that maybe now I can reach out to Him and ask Him, as He has recently lead me to heal me of my eating disorder. May we all be successful in TW. Thanks for letting me vent.
Thanks, rereading your post. Now more aware of pausing before I stuff food down. Now praying to allow the emotions to come up, and praying to go to God, and feeling peace with that prayer. Also, have thouggt about fasting for my family and to break strongholds and as a Christian I am suppose to fast. This post that running to food is a replacement of God. Thanks, gives me lots to think and pray about….?