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TOO BLESSED TO BE STRESSED CHALLENGE 7/1 THRU 12/30, 2013
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Faithfully Fit 4/28
Topic Started: Apr 28 2005, 03:15 AM (32 Views)
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From "Faithfully Fit," by Claire Cloninger & Laura Barr

Gratitude for Food

I remember one January 2 when I was bound and determined to start my New Year's diet. I had cleared the refrigerator of all remnants of holiday goodies and had gone to the grocery store to stock up on healthy foods. I walked in the front door carrying my groceries and spied on our foyer table a decorative tin box from a local pecan company that someone had left as a gift. I recognized the box immediately, and I knew without looking that it contained one of my major weaknesses---roasted pecans.

I can tell you that my dominant emotion at that moment was not gratitude for the gift. Just having roasted pecans on the premises was a threat to my every good intention.

In spite of the fact that we claim to love food, most of us who overeat have developed an adversarial relationship with food. Because we have found the struggle to control our eating behavior so difficult, we have learned to view food as our enemy. We fear it; we resent it; we cower at its power!

In truth, food is a gift from God which is basic to our survival and essential to our well-being. Food, along with every other created thing, is regarded by God as "good" and even "very good." Food was intended for our enjoyment and sustenance, and yet we have come to regard it as a source of pain, confusion, disorder, and disobedience. What a lie! Food is not to blame. Food is not our enemy.

We do HAVE an enemy, though. The Bible describes him as the one who twists and distorts reality, the one who takes what God intended for our good and uses it as a weapon against us.

We will not be free from overeating until we recognize the lie that Satan has sold us and acknowledge what is true. ("Ye will know the truth, and the truth, will make you free." John 8:32, RSV). Food is not our enemy, but our ally. And it cannot control me, either. In fact, in the first two chapters of Genesis we see that God put us humans in control of food, not the other way around. A roasted pecan cannot jump out of a tin box and force me to eat it! I have nothing to fear from food.

The Lord can heal my distorted perception of food when I come to him in prayer. I can begin to see food as a gift from God and stop giving it power in my life. With an attitude of gratitude, I can begin to give God praise and thanksgiving for his gifts and receive food as the blessing it was meant to be.

Prayer: Father, I praise and thank you for the gift of food. Thank you for your daily provision of food for me and my loved ones. Help me, Father, not to take that gift for granted. Help me to view food as you would have me to---not as an enemy but as an ally, provided for my nourishment. Jesus, I ask you to heal any misconceptions or warped notions I may have acquired about food. Give me the discernment to recognize the lies of the enemy. Give me a grateful heart. I pray in the strong name of Jesus, Amen.

Scripture: "Now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance," 2 Thessalonians 3:6, NASB.

Affirmation: I am learning to eat slowly and appreciatively
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