Hey y’all,
Have you ever felt like food is your enemy? Like no matter what you do, you just can’t seem to get it right? Either you eat too much, or too little? Too much of one thing, not enough of another? Often times you find yourself already obsessing over what you’re going to eat next when you haven’t even finished consuming the meal you are currently on? Yeah, me too. And let me just say, it is EXHAUSTING.
There are 1.789473 million other things going on in our worlds at any given time, but it seems that when I am in the grips of this struggle with food, it is all-consuming. Sometimes, it is all I can think about. As you can imagine, this leads to other areas of my life ‘slipping.’ Meaning extreme procrastination, not taking good care of myself, all the things. Its over all just NOT GOOD.
Simply put, food has become an idol. You could be consuming a ton of it in what would be considered a ‘binge,’ not be eating it at all (i.e. starving), or you could be somewhere in between. An idol is often times when we take a good thing and turn it into a ‘god’ thing. We can take something that is a good gift from God like food, and begin to worship it. Instead of God calling the shots in our life, the idol (in this case, food) does. Instead of making all of our decisions based off of prayer and God’s Word, we base them off of food and our obsession with it. It is a very slippery slope.
In 1 Corinthians 10:31, Paul writes, ‘so, whatever you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.’ Schweeeee. That is some powerful stuff right there. If you have ever struggled with food, body image, or exercise, let alone an eating disorder, that verse will blow your hair back. Paul is saying we should eat (and drink) for the GLORY of God. Not for our own personal gain, but as an act of worship.
We have been studying this in our Monday night recovery group at 139 Wellness. Last night, we dove into Chapter 8 of Breaking Free from Body Shame by Jess Connolly. The chapter is titled Your Body is Not a Marker of Righteousness. The title alone has been enough to keep our group in discussion for weeks. On page 166 of the book, she talks about some ‘life-giving practices’ for readers to try, one being to try eating as an act of worship. Jess says, “what if eating wasn’t about punishment or pleasure apart from God? What if it wasn’t about withholding or seeking comfort? What it it was thanking God for His good gifts and nourishing your body for the work He’s set before you?’
Y’all, that’s it. That is it, right there. Eating as an act of worship unto the Lord IS the way out of this twisted, nasty, tangled up web of this thing we call an eating disorder. Jesus is our only answer for healing, and worshiping Him through it is our only way out.
Ephesians 6:12 says, ‘for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.’ So when we are wrestling with our flesh, it is much bigger than we realize. We can’t put a bandaid on a bullet wound by trying to manipulate our eating practices more, etc. Although that isn’t always a bad thing. First, we need to go to the heart of the issue. We are fighting a spiritual battle, not against flesh and blood, or any created thing, which I would insert food here as well. Since we are fighting a battle way above our pay grade, we need the only One who can fight it on our behalf. His name is Jesus.
I am praying that today would be the day that each of us would surrender our food, body size, and exercise over to Him. It isn’t usually a one-time thing either. I usually have to hand over the reigns in these areas multiple times a day. Wherever you are at in this journey, wouldn’t it be incredible to begin to eat as an act of worship unto the Lord? How life-changing would that be?
Remember, what seems impossible to us is possible with God. If the tomb is empty, ANYTHING is possible.
You are fearfully and wonderfully made!
Love,
Camille
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