There are over 7000 promises in the Bible and we, as believers, can claim each one. There are promises of being filled, blessed and an eternal life in heaven. God has given us an eternity with Him, He has given us hope, a purpose and the promise of an abundant life. The way to this is Christ and the instruction manual is the Bible. God knows how hard we would find this journey and says,
“since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12)
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We, as followers of Christ, are surrounded by fellowship, by people who can testify of God’s goodness when we are struggling. He asks us to throw off everything that hinders and the sin that entangles us, that holds us back from running the race He has planned for us. It is my mission to help women to unentangle themselves from the chains of self-loathing, food obsession, diet cultures, hating to look in the mirror and the climate of comparison and instead empower them to take their thoughts captive, live in a state of acceptance and joy of what their bodies look like and what they can do, fuel their bodies with God at the centre, and essentially live the life God had planned for them at the time of their creation. A life with God, I can testify, is one where shame, fear and guilt no longer have a place. They are replaced by awe, wonder and excitement.
What saddens me most is seeing women who are weighed down by the burden of their sins and living with the consequences of them in a state of hopelessness. How easily the devil taints the gifts God has bestowed upon us so they become a distraction from those promises. He created us in His image and yet we are convinced that we need to change to look like a supermodel. He gave us our bodies as vessels of the Holy Spirit but our poor relationship with food and exercise takes away our energy and focus to GO and do the work He commissioned us to do. He gave us the gift of food in an abundance of textures, taste and colours and yet we have allowed it to become a burden, complaining when we must shop for it and cook it and label it bad, and yet I bet if it only rained down manna and food disappeared, we would soon be complaining like the Israelites did. He’s given a great many of us access to clean water and yet we often say no thanks and have a tea or coca cola instead. He’s given us an abundance of food and yet we don’t thank Him for it, we eat too much and then complain we are overweight and have no energy and then focus our efforts on losing weight whilst feeling miserable… not the abundant life God promised us. Being overweight and unhealthy is not the trial Jesus spoke about when He said life wouldn’t be easy. The trial wasn’t about how many calories I can fit into a day whilst still losing weight. The trouble is if we took away food and instead had three pills a day to nourish and sustain us we would likely turn to something else. I used to work with drug addicts and they would say I am a chemical dustbin, take away the chemicals and I am still a dustbin, I just feel empty and need to be filled. If food wasn’t an option for comfort, where would you look? So, let’s look at how if we are filled with God, we can be filled with food, for its purposes only…to fuel, sustain and to enjoy.
Here are the 10 lies the devil uses with food, counteracted with the truth of the good news.
Lie 1 You will be comforted if you eat vs Gods promise to comfort you.
1 Cor 1:3-5 that says,
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God” and “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you” (Isaiah 66:13, NIV).
So how do we move into a state of feeling comforted by God? We can seek comfort with the right people, those who will give you the Christ perspective and lift you up in the moment and through prayer. We can spend time with God and be honest with how we are feeling about where we are and ask for comfort. God knows all about us anyway so its not a surprise for Him. Spend time in nature to see where God is working. If he cares for the birds and trees, how much more does he care for you (Matthew 6:26). Write down where God has stepped in and delivered you from difficulties in the past so you can stand firm on the foundation he has laid already. Get some worship music on and praise. There are so many ways to be comforted by God but it can only work if we spend time in His presence in whatever way works best for you.
Lie 2 You will feel better if you eat when you feel low vs God’s promise of salvation.
Psalm 42:11 says,
“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil with me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.”
When low we often look at the mountain and forget about looking higher up to a God that can and has overcome it all. We instead can pray prayers of victory rather than prayers of pleading, knowing that “God can do far more than all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20). Pray big and get excited about what God has in store. We can look back and see where God has answered big prayers in your past to remind yourself of the benefit of having faith. We can do something for someone else. The Bible is full of reminders to do more for others. 1 Peter 4:10-11 says, “People should use their gifts to serve others as faithful stewards of God’s grace” and Hebrews 13:16 says “People should not forget to do good and share with others”. When our mind is on other people, we don’t think about ourselves, and it is a good reminder to be appreciative of what we do have. We can plan to do something enjoyable. Maybe you can’t do it right now, but you can plan for future fun.
Lie 3: Your prayers aren’t being answered so eat to feel better verses the promise of God to hear all our prayers.
In Matthew 21:22,
“And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
It maybe you are in a period of waiting for God to answer prayer. Maybe, it is for healing or for someone you love to be saved. Maybe you are waiting for God to change your circumstances, but the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says,
“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus”.
This can be a real challenge, but this verse tells us that there is always something to be grateful for. I often ask God to talk to me but he has given me the Bible so that is Him speaking in written form. I need to go to this when I feel discouraged and be reminded of the goodness of God. He answered my prayer with giving me a husband, three children, a loving family. He answered prayers before I even prayed them. He gave me the sunrise this morning, He gave me a new day. He is working on things even when I am asleep. Recently, I felt excited that a prayer I had been praying for a long time was going to be answered and it turned out to be a closed door. I retold this disappointment to a dear friend of mine who said that maybe God was trying to answer a prayer through that person, but they were being disobedient to Gods call. Wow, that blew my mind! God can try to answer prayers, but we must be willing to do our part too. What if you are the answer to someone’s prayer today and you are being disobedient to Gods call?
Sin results from the lie that God doesn’t want our deepest happiness. When we start to question this, we can look to other sources to make us happy. A.W. Tozer says, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us”. What do you believe about God? Do you believe he wants the best for you? That His timing is perfect? That he wants to bless you? If you don’t believe this, then the devil can convince you that food will make up for God’s lack of care for you, but Scripture promises us God always answers our prayer,
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find” (Matthew 7:7)
That he wants the best for us,
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11)
And that His timing is perfect
“Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end” (Ecc 3:11).
It may sometimes feel that your prayers will never be answered but the answer to that is not to dive into the biscuit tin and allow the devil to have you questioning Gods motives. Like when we say no to our children, we do so not to be unkind but for them to learn and grow and stay protected. What if God has better things in store than you can imagine, what if you need to have commitment to Him, for God to trust you with these blessings?
One of the prayers that hasn’t been answered for me yet is that my husband gives his life to God. What I realised is that I am living with the consequences of my choices. As a believer, but one who hadn’t committed their life to God, I made the choice to marry an unbeliever. My husband, Jim, has been married to me for 18 years and we have been together for 22 years. I love him so much and he makes me laugh on a daily basis. There is so much to love him for and yet I desperately want to be in a Chistian marriage and to raise our children with him as Christians but I chose to marry him so I have to live with the consequences of that. I can pray for him to be drawn by the Holy Spirit and to respond to that but I cant ask for more. I can repent that I made that choice but ultimately I can only be the best praying example of a follower of Christ and let God do the rest in His perfect timing. I believe that one day Jim will come to know God as his saviour and I am not going to let the Devil rid me of that faith and comfort eat in my disbelief.
Lie 4: Food will take away boredom vs Gods promise that you were made for more.
When I’m bored it is usually because I have spent little time in the day with God or doing things that fire me up for God. What are you missing in your life that excites you? Each of us has an important part to play in the family of Christ, that is why the Bible says we are part of the same body but have different functions (Romans 12:4-5). God knitted you together so that your core gifts is a thread that runs through everything you do. That is why I love to host meals and surprise people, because my core gifts is about creating joy. I do it at work, at home and in the things that excite me like buying gifts at Christmas or planning trips out with my family. Our lives are meant to have meaning. When you are “bored”, which means lacking in direction you can,
- Do something that excites you or plan to do something exciting
- Ask God’s direction for your steps today
- Do something for someone elseDeclare that you are made for more and find something to do that will back this belief up, preferably using your passions and gifts.
- Lie 5: I deserve a treat because I have been doing so much for everyone else vs Gods promise that God wants to bless you abundantly
In 2 Cor 9: 8-10 that says,
“And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written:
“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
their righteousness endures forever.”
Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness”
Do you ever find yourself saying, “I deserve a treat because I have done so much for everyone today”. What if we changed that to “I deserve a blessing because I have done so much for God today” because isn’t that what we should be doing anyway, doing it all for the glory of God, in which case do we need to have a treat or a blessing, do we not think that God blesses us enough already, we don’t need a treat as a reward. It made me think of Mary and Martha meeting Jesus. When we are like Martha, rushing around for everyone else and starting to feel stressed, overwhelmed and dare I say bitter that we are doing everything for everyone else and no one noticing or being appreciative, that is when we are in danger of eating. It is those moments when you do things for others without an audience that God notices the most. It is those little acts of obedience when God can see the maturity of our Christian lives growing. God doesn’t want us to be like Martha, he wants us to be in his presence like Mary. Martha showed great hospitality when Jesus came but she got lost in the distractions. Jesus doesn’t want you to be distracted but to be with Him.
Only seven times in the Bible did someone say, “Here I am God” and those seven people changed the course of history. Next time you are in the kitchen getting something to eat because you say you deserve it, speak that outloud “Here I am God” and see how it changes your perspective. It is the little choices that can change you and the people around you. The choice to say yes, yes and yes again to God will cause ripples that can affect your whole life. What if every time you reach for that chocolate bar/crisp pocket/ glass of wine you said yes to God, you put it down and did something you know is in God’s will for your life, whether it be sitting in his presence (which is actually what your mind and spirit needs) or taking a step of faith that you have been ignoring or praying for yourself or someone else. What if you said yes to God? What if, instead of getting frustrated that you are not changing from the outside to make yourself feel better on the inside which is what culture says we should do we instead take our lead from scripture and change from the inside out. Romans 12:2 says,
“Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you”.
Now that is exciting!
Lie 6: I am free to eat what I want to so I should vs God’s promise that we can live in freedom.
In Galatians 5:1 that says,
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery”.
When I was younger, I couldn’t wait to be able to go to the shops and spend my money on as many sweets as I wanted. Being an adult offers us freedoms that a child would relish. Being a Christian offers us a different kind of freedom. It is one where we are free to live under the grace of God, free to live with no condemnation and new mercies every morning. It is a freedom too good to be true you might think so it can lead us into danger. It’s a bit like my son Zeke who has no cut off when it comes to food especially on his birthday. He will eat way too much and with the excitement of this I can guarantee he is sick in the middle of the night after every birthday. We have the freedom to eat til we feel sick too but the Bible reminds us,
“everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial” (1 Cor 10:23).
The devil convinces us that because we have freedom, we should embrace it even when it means we self sabotage. We know that after making choices that we already know are bad for us like nipping to the shop on the way home to buy “treats “because we can or eating badly because we have had a bad day will make us regret it, and yet we continue to do the same thing again and again expecting different results, the definition of insanity. There is often a danger time in the day where the devil makes the suggestions, maybe when you are in the supermarket, maybe when on the way home from work or on the school run. Work out when your danger time is and put on the armour of God to fight against it.
Lie 7: Food will make you feel better about not being where you think you should be by now verses God promise that Jesus has plans for you
Hebrews 12:2 says, “Jesus is the author”. I imagine that God is in a permanent state of frustration with me. I have so much potential to be great. God has this path that He wants me to be on which is full of life and joy and yet I am continually looking at other people’s paths and wondering what it is like to be on their path, not noticing the beauty in my own. I step off the path and distracted by what I think will be more exciting, like a new TV program or a clothes shopping trip or dinner out with friends and yes they are exciting but God’s level of excitement planned for us is on a whole other level. My son will often go to his bedroom, knowing we have a full day of fun planned and get distracted by the toys he has seen hundreds of times before, so he doesn’t get dressed to start the fun. How often do we do that? God has planned so much, maybe you have seen in your life where God has intervened and changed your life for good. I certainly have. I went from an overweight, unfit, miserable twenty something year old to a God loving personal trainer and nutritionist within the space of ten years! God’s plan was not one I had even considered and yet here I am! When we look at the story of Esther, she was placed in a royal position for a purpose. God didn’t make a mistake where He put Esther, whose courage saved a nation and neither has He with where you are today. I think we spend too long in our life trying to figure out where God wants us to be or wishing we were somewhere else, instead of just allowing God to do something with our life where we are, while waiting for more to come.
Sometimes this is because someone else’s story looks better than mine but what we need to remember is that we are seeing a snapshot of that person’s story. Maybe we see them looking like they’ve got it all together but we see only the tip of the iceberg, we don’t see the whole story. We don’t know what is really going on for them, we don’t know about their relationship with God or their struggles, we just see what they show us and what we imagine their reality is. As a snapshot of their life, we can believe that they are doing a better job than we are in life or that life is perfect for them. Let us be reminded that Jesus is the author of your story and it’s going to be a bestseller but sometimes we can look over at someone else story and think theirs is a better one. Maybe they can sing worship and that looks like such a better gift to have, maybe they are a great speaker, commanding the attention of thousands of people, maybe they look like they are in a Christian group that you wish you were part of, maybe they are using their gifts and you wish you were using your better (these are all personal comparisons for me by the way!).
When I first started on this journey I decided to contact some Christian festivals to see if they wanted me to do Worshipcise at them. I decided when Creationfest said yes it was going to be my big break. I convinced myself loads of people would be convinced of the value of Worshipcise and it would get become a huge brand. Little did I know, God had other ideas. I went there and no one turned up on the first day until a couple of songs in when a small family joined me. It was devastating, I had travelled hours down to Cornwall to go and hardly anyone came on all three days but something shifted in me thanks to God. After the first session I went back to my van and wept, feeling so ashamed and alone but then the Holy Spirit whispered to me asking me who am I doing Worshipcise for, me or Him. If it is for Him and to give Him the glory, it shouldn’t matter who comes, even if no one does I should be proud and excited to be worshipping God and so now I love worshipping with a crowd but even if its just me, or a few, I will always remember that lesson that I needed to learn, it is all for God’s glory and not my own. Strangely enough, I recently had an email from someone who went to Creationfest five years ago saying she is now doing Worshipcise at her church. The Greek proverb says, “blessed are those who plant trees under whose shade they will never sit”. You have no idea what difference your prayers and actions make, what seeds you have sewn that bears fruit long after you have forgotten you planted it. Your story and who it affects may not become clear until you see your Father in heaven. It is about obedience and trusting that the things you do in secret that only God knows about will make a difference. What if when you start comparing yourself to others, you ask God about your uniqueness and using it for His glory, whether you get to see the results or not.
Lie 8: I feel so ashamed about my body I might as well push the self-destruct button one more time vs God’s promise that we can live in God’s grace.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9).
When we overeat on a regular basis, the consequences of this are that we put weight on unless we do enough exercise to counteract the calories. Overeating is your tongue writing cheques your body can’t cash. The devil makes us believe that we should feel shame about the overeating and the evidence of this in weight gain is something to remind us of the shame we should feel. This makes sense in our brains, we have sinned and therefore should feel unforgiven and guilty. The difficulty is, even when we ask for forgiveness from the poor coping strategies we have used, the fact that the consequences are evident, the devil uses to make us think we should still feel shame, even after we have asked for forgiveness and God, in His mercy and grace, gives us a fresh start. Wouldn’t it be great if asking for forgiveness meant that those calories didn’t count! We need to ask God to align our thinking with His thinking for. Isaiah 55:8-9 says,
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts”
We can treat ourselves kindly as we learn new ways to include God. For example, we wouldn’t throw cookies into our children’s mouths if they had a stressful day and then berate them for it, so why do we do this to ourselves? We need to take our minds off ourselves and our bodies and return Jesus to the throne, so he becomes our focus. Instead of focusing on yourself, imagine Jesus taking you hand and leading you towards food freedom.
Is we have a lack of self-control in the area of food, the devil can use this to tempt me in other areas. If he tried it with Jesus, the son of God, he’s going try it with you too! When Jesus is in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights, the devil tries to convince Him that he should please himself, especially when it come to food but Jesus states clearly that He will live in obedience to the Father before giving into his appetite for food. If only Eve had done that. We live in a culture of FOMO (fear of missing out) and it’s what tripped Eve up, she was convinced she was missing out by not being able to eat the apple God has told her not to. We can have the same FOMO when we don’t eat food we think we should be able to eat. Don’t let the devil convince you, you can eat the food but you don’t need to, you’re not missing out on anything if you are eating without the connection of God and food. The problem is not the food itself but where food sits in our mind, if it is more important that God and takes attention away from God, then it is time to reassess. It should be a way to glorify God, for the creator and saviour that He is. “Whatever you are doing, show that God is great. When you eat anything, or you drink anything, do it all in a way that praises God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
Lie 9: I am eating because its there vs God’s promise “The scripture says ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’.” (Matthew 4:4)
Food doesn’t magically arrive in your hand, it has to get there by us going shopping and cooking/preparing it. We are not victims. An addict doesn’t just suddenly relapse with no warning signs and similarly a flower doesn’t just grow, it needs specific conditions to flourish. You don’t accidentally overeat, it can take unconscious planning. For example, you are in the supermarket and buy snacks “for the kids”, you pop in for a pint of milk and sweets end up in your basket, you make double the portion of food required for the family, you arrange to meet a friend at a café that serves delicious cakes the size of your head. None of these circumstances are a shock, even if the devil convinces you that they are. Be aware of where the devil is trying to trip you up. Compare this scenario with your legs. They are magically just there too but how often are you using them for God’s glory?
Lie 10: I am tired and so need to eat vs God’s promise Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”
Tiredness is a massive factor for overeating or eating food that will not fuel for very long. If tired, we often resort to the foods to give the quick fix sugar rush to keep us going. This stance is one of surviving and not thriving. I have felt tired too, we all have. Tired that of being an adult, tired of the grind, tired of prayers not being answered as quickly as we want them too, tired of feeling like you are the only one who is tired. We can be physically tired of late nights, early mornings, broken sleep, that tiredness that feels like its in your bones. But, the good news is God knows how tired you are. All He needs you to do is show up. It doesn’t have to be pretty, it doesn’t need to be an hour long Bible study or anything fancy, it can just be a word, it can be five minutes. That is sometimes all it takes. Its just bringing it to God and letting Him sit with you in the tiredness, trusting that he never leaves you in your weariness. It is a hard habit to form when tiredness is telling you to go for the quick fix but we know that Adam and Eve ate their way out of Eden and so often so do we, when just a few minutes with God can change our hearts and minds. We see David in the Psalms come to God in his full messiness and so that can encourage us to do the same. The Bible is full of people who have messed up, who are tired and struggling. Elijah, in his tired state, even became suicidal, asking God to end it all but after a good sleep and a decent meal and spending time in God’s presence, being honest about how he felt, he was ready to continue, lets make it that simple.
I hope this has blessed you and you can build new habits using these truths to combat those lies that have invaded your kitchen. Let us remember that, “God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phillippians 4:19) but we must bring it all to Him first.
Fit for God 