“Man shall not live from bread alone, but from every word that comes out from the mouth of God.” (Deut. 8,3/ Mt. 4,4)
Dear family in the Lord!
This blog is about listening to God’s wisdom and applying it in the more or less neglected yet vital area of our life: Food. Today’s post will be about revealing some thought patterns that determine how and what we eat. Displaying a very personal matter I will try to illustrate a problem I see many suffer from. This one might not make you laugh (that’s what my husband said), but I hope it gets you to think DEEP and PRAY.
For some reason this week I started thinking about what I would call the worst thing that ever happened to me in my whole life. In my mind I went through painful memories such as rejections, heartbreaks, failures, lack of purpose, fears, disappointments or victimizing. Hard to tell what dramatic story can top the other! At one point it hit me in the most freeing way:
The worst thing that ever happened to me in my whole life is that I allowed a few people to lie to me about who God is. Flowing from that place I made the most terrible choices.
Now, I’m not claiming that I am done exploring the complex nature of our Threefold God, since I know I believed a lie. I am stating that in a weak episode of my life (where I felt the consequence of all those not healed places combined) I dared to trust some people who seemed to have it all together (this was back in Germany). It all started very promising and listening to their advice and praying with them about my various wounding brought me closer to the place I knew I wanted to be: God’s heart. Well, I wouldn’t be who I am today if I had noticed and acted sooner upon the fact that my radical Christian group turned out to be a full grown version of a microcosmic cult and the invested trust was being used and abused until I believed the worst thing I have ever believed in my whole life: That God is upset with me and it is up to me to fix that.
How freeing it is to expose lies! It is a lie that God looks down unto human kind, moody like a spoiled adolescent, waiting for people to finally get their acts together and make him happy again. Being away from that group for some time I realized that this personality description fits better to the personality of the group’s leader…
Why, from all the lies that you could believe in, would it be the worst to believe in an angry God? Because it drives you away from God. One way or the other. It separates you from the source of life and that is the book definition of Sin. I was so driven by guilt and even fear that God would change his mind constantly about how He sees me and what He wants me to do that it almost drove me nuts. Mostly I would hear God say (through the mouth of one of the leaders of course) that what ever I attempted in terms of saving the world, submitting to leadership, “cutting the flesh,” praying for the lost, giving money, restricting my daily life choices to only the “holiest of the holiest” ones, leaving my non-believer friends behind, leaving my family behind who wouldn’t fall in line with the leaders commands and expectations, it still would not be good enough. Although sometimes it would be.
Even though I would get a "pat on the shoulder" once-in-a-while, it is bad, very very bad, to wait for someone’s absolution (having someone tell you that for what ever reason God is okay with you - for now)! Let me finish this excursion by sharing my faith with you: I came to believe that there is nothing that I can do to repair my relationship with God. He sent Jesus Christ to this world to be a living and dying and resurrecting testimony to the fact that God is not giving up on us and that HE is the solution to mankind’s problem: Sin (being separated from God). I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior, I live to glorify this gift of God, himself.
And he didn’t just leave his followers as orphans, he sent his spirit, his character, to teach, guide and comfort us. Now I can know and rest that I am free from the task of making God happy, for he sees me through the eyes of his son Jesus. To say that I still need to work my way up to heaven and up to approval is a lie from the pit of hell. Hallelujah, who is set free by the Son is free indeed! Now I can be the disciple that gets so close to Jesus that I can hear his heart beat and I can know that it is a VERY GOOD thing that God is watching over us, with his eyes trembling with love and hope for us. For him it is all about us- now we need to learn to have our lives be all about him…
Why am I writing about this stuff today and how can I transfer it to be about nutrition? Because listening to a lot of people I realized that many have a problem that I want to compare to the lie that I have been terribly wounded and mightily freed from: They think that something is wrong with them, in a big time fashion, and they think they can fix themselves by enhancing their outward appearance. People feel guilty if they don’t come to the gym to work out, they make excuses why they didn’t show, or they are addicted to burning calories, they call it a “sin” to eat desert or French fries or they eat as if tomorrow was the end of the world, they knowingly choose to eat terrible foods and say they didn’t have anything else to eat, or they only live of a handful of nothing to eat or nourish them, they say they hate themselves for looking the way they do, they try to get absolution for their choices by referring to or blaming other people, their past wounding, or their lack of time, they mix up “treating themselves” with hurting themselves, legalism with discipline, they want me to admit that I “sin” too sometimes…, they truly believe that their lives will be somewhat okay if they only see that they did have the power to change or control themselves drastically enough, maybe so that they feel like they can control one thing in their life, or get others to love, respect, value, accept them more.
It is bad, very very bad, to wait for someone’s absolution. In the cases described people make themselves or other people to God, whom they have to please, pretty much like how I fell for the worst lie. Their lack of motivation (honestly, how long will guilt be able to carry you?) they call their “little sin,” which will either lead to more guilt or to indifference. Or their zeal to control their weight and size leads to other health and soul issues. Either way, I came to believe, that moving (or not moving for that matter) out of such a motivation will only keep someone busy in their attempts to clean up their lives. It will not fix their lives. Or give them a lasting satisfaction about who they are. Or solve their problems. Or have them love themselves and other people.
The truth will set us free. The truth I am talking about is Jesus Christ. Have you tried everything to make yourself and/or others love you? How did that work out for you? Maybe it is time to realize that you hit rock bottom. If Jesus Christ is your Lord and savior and yet you can’t receive God’s love for you and believe his thoughts about you more than any other voice, go into your prayer closet and talk to HIM about it! Listen while you pour out your authentic heart! Pray with believers you trust. Just don’t ever fall for the lie that God needs you to make him happy.
God is totally content with who he is and what he has. And if Jesus is your savior God sees you through the sacrifice of Jesus. You are his wonderful creation.
In the same manner don’t make your attempts to bring your life in order into an idol. Yes, God wants you healthy and not under the law or lack of education and discipline. But he has set you free so that you may be free indeed! If it is on your heart to glorify God with your daily eating and exercising choices- go for it. Contend for divine discipline (brought to maturity this would be called a lifestyle) – who wants to be a 21st century Pharisee who loves the law more than the God it is all about and needs to hide his shortcomings with masks and lies? In other words, long for maturity so your motivation comes from an inner wanting, a desire to do what pleases the spirit in opposition to attempting to fulfill the law to make it up to heaven.
Now, what would Jesus eat? Well, we talked about the times back then in Spa #2, the food back then was probably pretty “wholesome” compared to America today. So to ask if Jesus ever had to pass down pop or popsicles, I don’t think that matters. Jesus as the second Adam lived in true relationship with God the Father. Food is for the nourishment of the body and I believe Jesus knew how to enjoy food and life to the fullest. Let me just sideline that Jesus made remarkable great wine for already intoxicated people, who couldn’t tell the taste anymore anyway.
But another remarkable Jesus fact: He knew “Man shall not live from bread alone, but from every word that comes out from the mouth of God.” (Deut. 8,3/ Mt. 4,4)
WOW what a wisdom! This is profound. What lies about God and yourself do you believe?
This is where I hand the mic over to you and I urge you to take the time and ask yourself, why you eat the way you do, why you pursue to change your body and habits, etc. Let me invite you to seek and enter the heart of God to know every word HE speaks about you! Let THOSE words be the one guiding you to the grocery store, to the fridge, to the restaurant, to the bathroom, to the gym, all the way through your daily life. You are absolutely worth it, because Jesus earned you to live a life to the fullest.
If you need further support or wonder if I can refer you to prayer partners, write me an email!
I release you today with the hope that you wouldn't be scared to face the lies in your life, one at a time. You are not alone, you have a whole body with Jesus as head to come along side you in your journey to glorify God with every aspect of your life.
Be blessed abundantly!
