Boy is this a loaded topic because I just want to say, “It’s all in my book! Bye!” (Haha!)
But really, I do want to share a few things that would have helped me tremendously, had I known then what I know now...
I thought I needed to diet. Wanting to be skinny isn’t a "why" for weight loss (We'll talk about this in a later post.). Had I known, even as a 12-year old girl who started dieting because she was convinced she needed to lose weight to look better and be accepted by others, I could have been FREE, free from the bonds of a lie I believed in my youth and the god I served that held me captive in order to keep me from focusing on what my Loving Father had for me.
Looking back now, I realize that I didn’t need to lose weight during those years of my life, and I wonder how much time I could have had with God, being fully known and loved, had I not been distracted with something that didn’t matter and had become an idol to me. What did matter, and always will, is the recognition that as a child of God, my body is the temple of the Living God; He resides there!
"Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body." I Corinthians 6:19-20, NLT
You see, I had it all wrong in my head, so it became difficult to diet because it wasn't congruent with my values. Deep down, I knew that I was loved by God, just the way I was; yet, I chose to believe what the enemy and the world wanted me to believe...that I needed to change how I looked by following the world's wisdom instead of God's wisdom. I was deceived into thinking that dieting was the solution; yet, God says otherwise:
"Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." -Romans 12:2, NLT
So of course, the difficulty of sticking to a diet becomes even harder when our souls aren't aligned with our actions. It's like the mind is trying to force the body to do something against the nature of who God has made us to be. So we have to start with our minds, as Romans 12:2 says, allowing God to teach us how to think, how to see through His lens. It's the work of the Holy Spirit within us to help us see ourselves as His beloved and find our identity in Him, to be authentically who He made us.
Later, in my twenties, when I really did need to lose weight for my health, it would have been so much easier for me had I accepted myself where I was, remembering that God loved me just like that, but also able to see my potential through His eyes, desiring to be my best for Him. So instead of restricting food, seeing it as good or bad, thus seeing myself as either good or bad for those food choices, I've come to realize that all food is GOOD, that is, all food that God made is good. I've also come to understand how much man has altered God's good creation, which is often what causes disease and weight gain in our bodies.
Isn't it just like the enemy to take God's good gifts to us and influence humans to distort them into a bad thing for us. We have to be astute to the enemy's tactics to fully understand how what we're putting in our mouths can either harm us or benefit us. Because of all the tinkering with real food, scientists have learned how to add substances (not food) and also the food itself in unnatural proportions (highly salty, fat, and sweet) to make us addicted. They've even genetically engineered and modified real food, and denatured it so much (by over-processing it) that it can harm us instead of nurture and heal us, as God intended it.
There's more to this story, which I'll continue to share in time, but the bottom line is that I wish I had approached weight loss from a different mindset, one of seeing my true value and worth from God's perspective, which would have eliminated the need for dieting and allowed me to make food choices from a place of self-worth, knowing that I was made in His image, to reflect His glory.
Once my eyes were opened by the Holy Spirit, I began seeing the truth about myself and food, knowing that I needed to do my homework to understand how all the the things we put in our mouths that we call food are so far from God's original design. And I want to share these truths with you, based on my years of research and experience of how God's blessings have been turned into cursing in our world.
If you're on a weight loss journey now, I want you to know you do not have to diet to get results. Instead, God has given you freedom to choose the foods that will help you and honor Him. He has given you the key to break free from the chains of food bondage, but you have to make the choice to use the key, my sweet friend. Remember, the enemy seeks to steal, kill, and destroy, using our food bondage to overcome us and enslave us, to keep us from being the best God made us to be so we can glorify God in our bodies and lives.
Don't be discouraged, for God's Word tells us that we've been given the same power that raised Jesus from the dead (Ephesians 1:19-20 & Romans 8:11). That's truly incredible to me! Again, it's our choice whether or not we tap into that power, which is the Holy Spirit living in us.
I want to end by reminding you that in a world full of lies and misinformation, you are safest in God's presence, where you can be fully known and loved. He knows this journey can be hard and is full of temptations and lies that would lead us to make wrong turns. I would encourage you to stay in His Word, strengthening yourself with His truth that you can use to speak truth over the lies the enemy wants you to believe. In the process, He'll renew your mind and the path will be made clear to you, as you make daily decisions for your good and His glory.
I would love to pray for you, Friend. Please leave me a comment to let me know if this resonated with you and how I can pray for you. Or you can contact me here.
In Love & Service,
