gluttony, body image and god - part 2

More on what I have learned from listening to Crystal Munson's talk on 'Gluttony'.

“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.” Philippians 3:18-19

What are the things we set our minds on?

What should I eat?
What shouldn't I eat?
How can I hide what I've eaten?
How can I justify the amount I've eaten?
I wished I look like...
If only I was thinner...
How am I going to get a better body?
Will people think I look beautiful in this?
She looks better than me...
How much weigh have I lost?
How can I make my body different...
What can I do to make myself more beautiful?
I wish I could change...
I hope no-one is looking at me...

What we let our minds dwell on, are the things we begin to worship - a number on the scales, our appearance, food, a menu plan, an exercise plan, our bodies, our stomachs; all can become our little idols and we begin to worship them. It is foolishness to think that you can spend all day thinking about food, what people think of us, what we look like and not be worshipping these things. It soon becomes evident that we are giving more time, energy, money and thought to our stomachs, our bodies and our appearance than we are giving to God.

Why do you want to overcome gluttony?
Is it because you are repentant or is to impress other people?

I should have mentioned earlier that there are some people who struggle with gluttony and who look fine, so appearance is not really a motivator for them. This is not about how we look but our thoughts, attitudes, motives and actions that are sins; what keeps us from been in a right relationship with God and how these things can cause us to become enemies of the Cross of Christ.

Crystal focused on 2 particular areas that can make us enemies of the Cross of Christ:

Self-sufficiency
Basically, this is us saying - "I can do this by myself and I don't need God's help". It's trying to fix ourselves in order that we may have something to offer to God, something that makes us acceptable, lovable and worthy. Essentially, trying to earn our salvation. But by saying you could earn your salvation, you are then implying you don't need the Cross and this attitude will put you at odds with the Cross.

"He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed." 1 Peter 2:24

We are dead in our sin and there is NOTHING we can do to save ourselves. Every time you sin while eating (or any other way) it is a wound that Jesus had to bear on the cross, so that we could be healed, so that we could be found righteous in the eyes of God. How foolish are we to think that we are capable of changing our own hearts? It should be clear after a time of struggle in an area of sin that you are incapable and completely insufficient to soften and transform your own heart. It is humbling to think that we cannot even eat without sinning apart from the grace of Jesus. As long as you are endeavouring to fix yourself and make yourself more acceptable, and show God how capable you are of cleaning yourself up, you're going to despise what He did on the cross for you. And given enough time of trying to fix yourself up and make yourself look good, you will eventually experience self-condemnation.

Self-condemnation
Self-condemnation is accusation, hopelessness and shame. It is different to Godly conviction. It is essential to feel God given conviction, to feel heartbroken and crushed at the depth of your sin in this area. Self-condemnation is Satan attacking and condemning you with thoughts of:

What were you thinking?
You are never going to be thin if you keep this up.
Don't you trust Jesus to help you?
You're hopeless.
You're worthless.
You can't even do this.
How could God love you?
You begin to think of how you have fallen short in honouring God with your body and feel ashamed.

This puts you in a place where find it hard to believe that God would love you and that He would forgive someone as sinful as you. Then you will be unable to accept the sufficiency of what Jesus did on the cross for you.

"God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Corinthians 5:21

Jesus doesn't just forgive your sin, give you a ticket to heaven and say 'OK, I've done my part, the rest is up to you, you finish it by yourself.' He became sin so we could have His righteousness. So when Satan, the father of lies, starts filling your head with accusations, claim Romans 8:1 which says:

"...there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

Believe it! We can't say to ourselves 'I am worthless' or 'I am hopeless' and in the next breath say there is no condemnation for me.
Choose to believe God's truth instead of Satan's lies. God wants us to have redemption from our sins and have God restored to the centre of our worship. It's where He wants you and promises to take you.
We need to spend time asking God to expose to us where our sin is, where our idols are, and hopefully when God shows us, we can have repentance and grieve our sin. But the goal is not to be good people who don't do those bad things we used to do. The goal is that we would have a right view of God and that He could restore us to a place of joyful worship. That we will see God for all that He is and hopefully bring EVERY aspect of our lives under His submission including what we eat and what we do with our bodies.

The biggest lie Satan wants you to hear is that this isn't a big issue, that this doesn't really affect our relationship with God. This is not a minor sin and this isn't something we can ignore - it will affect your ability to worship God, to love God and to receive love from God.

Crystal suggests looking at any chapter in the Bible and ask God what He can show you of your sin of gluttony. The reason being, that we see the word 'sin' and attach it to something else because we don't want to acknowledge gluttony as a sin or have to deal with it. Ask God to show you the changes you need to make with your eating and your body. He will tell you and He will fight the battle for you. I have started doing this working my way through Philippians and will share with you what I have found another time.

He provides His strength where before we had weakness.
He provides His righteousness for us when all we ever knew was sin.

Psalm 31:
1 In you, O LORD, I have taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame;
deliver me in your righteousness.

2 Turn your ear to me,
come quickly to my rescue;
be my rock of refuge,
a strong fortress to save me.

3 Since you are my rock and my fortress,
for the sake of your name lead and guide me.

4 Free me from the trap that is set for me,
for you are my refuge.

5 Into your hands I commit my spirit;
redeem me, O LORD, the God of truth.

6 I hate those who cling to worthless idols;
I trust in the LORD.

7 I will be glad and rejoice in your love,
for you saw my affliction
and knew the anguish of my soul.

8 You have not handed me over to the enemy
but have set my feet in a spacious place.

9 Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am in distress;
my eyes grow weak with sorrow,
my soul and my body with grief.

10 My life is consumed by anguish
and my years by groaning;
my strength fails because of my affliction,
and my bones grow weak.

11 Because of all my enemies,
I am the utter contempt of my neighbors;
I am a dread to my friends—
those who see me on the street flee from me.

12 I am forgotten by them as though I were dead;
I have become like broken pottery.

13 For I hear the slander of many;
there is terror on every side;
they conspire against me
and plot to take my life.

14 But I trust in you, O LORD;
I say, "You are my God."

15 My times are in your hands;
deliver me from my enemies
and from those who pursue me.

16 Let your face shine on your servant;
save me in your unfailing love.

17 Let me not be put to shame, O LORD,
for I have cried out to you;
but let the wicked be put to shame
and lie silent in the grave.

18 Let their lying lips be silenced,
for with pride and contempt
they speak arrogantly against the righteous.

19 How great is your goodness,
which you have stored up for those who fear you,
which you bestow in the sight of men
on those who take refuge in you.

20 In the shelter of your presence you hide them
from the intrigues of men;
in your dwelling you keep them safe
from accusing tongues.

21 Praise be to the LORD,
for he showed his wonderful love to me
when I was in a besieged city.

22 In my alarm I said,
"I am cut off from your sight!"
Yet you heard my cry for mercy
when I called to you for help.

23 Love the LORD, all his saints!
The LORD preserves the faithful,
but the proud he pays back in full.

24 Be strong and take heart,
all you who hope in the LORD.