When people read the Stop Dieting – Start Living approach to weight loss the initial reaction is usually one of excitement, that here, at last, they have found a Biblical model which is so different from all the conventional diets they have tried in the past. It all makes so much sense and they wonder why, as Christians, they hadn’t seen it earlier. With all the enthusiasm of a new convert they launch themselves into the programme, determined to listen to their bodies, make godly food choices and allow the Holy Spirit to control their eating behaviour.
As their eating awareness is raised it soon becomes obvious that they have been eating for many, many reasons – most of them having nothing at all to do with food! Powerful thought associations, strong emotions (usually negative ones) and social conditioning are all seen to have played their part in developing a pattern of inappropriate eating and they eagerly seek for God to sort out the whole tangled mess so that order can be restored and then they will…. well, lose weight of course!
This is certainly the theory, but we all know that in practice things don’t always run that smoothly. And so, when the weight doesn’t drop off as quickly as you had hoped; when, in spite of doing all the ‘right things’ little progress appears to have been made, then of course you go back to the drawing board and ask yourself: ‘Is this the right model after all?’
People sometimes say to me, ‘This way makes so much sense. It is so Biblically based and I know in my spirit that this is the way we are meant to eat and relate to food. I know that God’s wisdom is so much greater than man’s wisdom and I don’t ever want to go back to the old paths, but…..’And then they speak of the personal disappointment they have felt with their own mediocre results.
I can’t tell you how much my heart goes out to you when this happens. Sometimes there are natural explanations…. Medical conditions, hormonal problems and medication can sabotage our best efforts; genetics and basic body shape all play their part, whilst nutritional ignorance can cause us to make unhealthy choices without knowing it. But I don’t have all the answers and sometimes, ‘having done all’ we just have to keep standing.
‘Does Job serve God for nought?’ Satan asked the Lord when God was boasting of his righteous servant. ‘You’re blessing him, right? That’s why he’s serving you. Take the hedge down and let me get at him, and then let’s see what happens.’ Well, we all know what happened next. The hedge of protection was taken down and Job lost everything. Amazingly, however, he didn’t turn on God; he didn’t shake his fist and say, ‘Well, if that’s what I get for being true to your ways, forget it’ he didn’t ‘curse God and die’ as his wife suggested. Instead he declared, ‘shall we not receive good from the hand of the Lord and shall we not also receive evil?’ He submitted himself to God and worshipped.
Our struggles with our weight, irksome though they be, are not to be compared with the magnitude of Job’s trials. Nevertheless they are very real, very frustrating and can leave us perplexed about why God isn’t acting on our behalf the way we feel he should. The dilemma is whether to carry on applying these Biblical principles to our eating, even when there isn’t any obvious weight loss, whether to return to the burdensome yet structural safety of diets or whether to simply throw in the towel, get fatter and reap the consequences.
Child of God, listen to me! You don’t please God by being slim any more than by being fat. He isn’t measuring your love and commitment by the reading on the bathroom scales. He sees your heart and that is all that matters. Make it your business to listen and obey and then leave the results with him. Are you eating as healthily as you know how, providing your body with the nutrients it needs, rather than feeding it on junk? Are you exercising adequately, allowing for any personal limitations you may have? Are you eating primarily to satisfy physiological hunger, and allowing God to reveal and deal with areas of emotional eating in your life? If you are doing all this, then you are doing all that God requires of you. Don’t let the devil knock you to the ground with his lies. Having done all you can, simply stand still, know that He is God and eventually you will see the salvation of the Lord.
