In the past several months I have noticed an increased desire to eat. Everything. All the time. Planning out each meal (and the snacks in between) and anticipating the next time that savory food slides down my throat into the pit of my stomach is practically a past-time. And after that meal takes place, there is no time wasted as the thought of what the next meal will be is already in progress.
If it’s unhealthy, it’s probably safe to bet that I like it. Brownies, cookies, ice cream, and of course the ‘well deserved’ glass of chocolate milk to wrap-up my day. Creamy peanut butter with crunchy chocolate chips with a hint of banana underneath is the way I like half of my recommended servings of daily fruit. The other half is not far from the juiciest apple you’ve ever bitten into with a nice slab of Nutella.
Long story short, food began to own me. I was a slave to the satisfaction found in the twenty seconds after devouring a piece of dark chocolate. I had shown God my appreciation for food, something that he had given to me and provided to sustain me out of His goodness, by replacing him with food on the throne of my heart. Guilt and shame soon to follow.
I’m sure there’s at least one person reading this thinking, “You’re really just being dramatic”, “Everyone eats a lot”, “Some people just have a sweet tooth”, “It’s just food, it can’t take the place of God”. And that’s where I wish I could say you were wrong.
Jesus, while refusing to give in to the temptation to find his nourishment and sustenance in physical food replied to Satan in the desert, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work” (John 4:34). Fulfilling the desire of his Father was more important than anything Jesus could have put in his mouth at that point. Literally, his soul “yearned and fainted for the LORD”, and his heart desired the Living God (Psalm 84:1-2).
Yes, He was 100% God, but He was also 100% man. Which means HE WAS HUNGRY after those 40 days in the desert. Yet, Jesus chose to not “love the world or anything in it”, but instead found strength in the satisfaction of his Father. “For everything in the world- the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does - comes not from the Father but from the world” (1 John 2:15-16). Jesus looked ahead to the eternal benefit of putting the desires of God above the desires of his stomach.
So, what are the implications of this for me? After recently reading a book called Made To Crave by Lysa TerKeurst, there are practical steps toward craving the things of God (eternal) rather than craving immediate gratification (temporary). First, I have to give up my ‘right’ to eat whatever I want just because I can. “Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial..I will not be mastered by anything” (1 Corinthians 6:12). The process of giving up my constant craving for food gave new definition to denying myself and taking up my cross daily in order to show Christ that He is more worth my time, effort, love, and thoughts than the next meal I eat.
So, what are the implications of this for me? After recently reading a book called Made To Crave by Lysa TerKeurst, there are practical steps toward craving the things of God (eternal) rather than craving immediate gratification (temporary). First, I have to give up my ‘right’ to eat whatever I want just because I can. “Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial..I will not be mastered by anything” (1 Corinthians 6:12). The process of giving up my constant craving for food gave new definition to denying myself and taking up my cross daily in order to show Christ that He is more worth my time, effort, love, and thoughts than the next meal I eat.
What really drove the point home was Paul’s recordings in Philippians 3:18-19, which says,
[“For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things”].
Believe me, there have been many tears on my end, not just because of the way I feel after giving in to those cravings, but feeling like a failure in the sight of the One who cares most about me.
[“For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things”].
Believe me, there have been many tears on my end, not just because of the way I feel after giving in to those cravings, but feeling like a failure in the sight of the One who cares most about me.
But, reading on in the next two verses, there is hope for even the lowest points. For the points when I feel I have been overcome by an inanimate object. For the points when the world says I can have my (second slice of) cake and eat it too - there is the remembering of what Christ did for me on the cross.
Knowing I was a sinner, and would soon choose my love of food over his love for me, Jesus willingly suffered, hung on a cross, and died. Because I was bought at a price, my body is no longer mine. I have submitted it to the Lordship of Christ, in the secure hope of being transformed through his righteousness (Philippians 3:20-21). Defeating death, he rose three days later to conquer death and all sin. For those who choose to believe in him and what He did on the cross, Jesus gives the benefit of being children of God and inheriting eternal life in Heaven. (John 1:12).
Knowing I was a sinner, and would soon choose my love of food over his love for me, Jesus willingly suffered, hung on a cross, and died. Because I was bought at a price, my body is no longer mine. I have submitted it to the Lordship of Christ, in the secure hope of being transformed through his righteousness (Philippians 3:20-21). Defeating death, he rose three days later to conquer death and all sin. For those who choose to believe in him and what He did on the cross, Jesus gives the benefit of being children of God and inheriting eternal life in Heaven. (John 1:12).
Now, choosing to eat that fourth brownie might be okay for me, but is it beneficial? Do I crave knowing and walking with Jesus as much as I’m craving that next bite of baked deliciousness? Those are the moments that from now on, I will NOT choose to live as an enemy of the cross. I was not made to be in bondage to something from a Betty Crocker box, but it is for FREEDOM that Christ has set me free, so I won’t be “bound by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). My god will not be my stomach. My finest moments will not come just moments before a time of shame filled failures. My mind will not be on earthly things. Instead, my God will be the unconditional love shown for me on the cross by a man named Jesus Christ. And what is more exciting, worth desiring, worth craving, than to know and follow this God who, “redeems our lives from the pit, and crowns us with love and compassion, who satisfies our desires with good things for the sake of knowing Him?” (Psalm 103:3-5).
