Prayer and Positive Thinking.
John 15:4 “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”
We need Jesus to help us if we want to be like him. Can we “rest in His presence” and allow him to help us with our diets?
As Christians, we are told to discipline ourselves about a lot of things. We pray and ask God to give us strength to resist temptation. We ask Him to help us love our enemies. I think we need to add resisting processed foods as well. “Father, help me to control my temper,” and also, “Help me to control my eating habits; help me to resist the foods that are unhealthy.” Eating only real food can help control appetites because real food is nourishing and sustaining. Pray to resist the addictive, “zero health benefits” food.
You can do this. Decide that you are moving forward with it and that you are resolved to change the way you eat. Then pray every day, hour by hour, minute by minute for God’s help. A lot of us have great spiritual discipline with prayer, but some of us (me) really struggle with it. I am stronger (not perfect) about eating good food but my weakness is prayer. You may be strong in prayer but weak about eating good food, or weak in another area altogether. All of us have our strengths and weaknesses and all of us should be working to make our strengths stronger and our weaknesses not so feeble. In God-Given Food, Celia Marie references The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale and quotes him as saying “Knowledge is cure.” I encourage you to gain knowledge. Read as many books as you can on natural diets, the history of processed foods, and how we were manipulated away from eating good food to eating bad food. One of my favorites is The Liberation Diet. Here is the link: https://amzn.to/46FmQoD. It It’s a very straight forward, clear and interesting read.
Knowledge is a powerful weapon. Get mad, not in a hateful way, but in a way that will “set your face like flint” to your goal of eating good food. Isaiah 50:7 – “Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame.”
Addictive behavior (which most of us have these days because of the prevalence of addictive fake foods) has been related to trauma in our childhood (most of us have childhood trauma, too). Discussing and praying over your past with a counselor might be what is needed to move on. Seek help if you need it to overcome your past. When Jesus sets you free from your past sins and sins that were against you, you can work on setting yourself free from the addictive behavior you are using to make yourself feel better or distract you from thinking about life or your past. Gaining knowledge is also about learning why we behave in certain ways. Why are we so angry? Why are we so scared? Or, why can’t we stop eating ice cream?
I want us all to get angry with righteous anger because of the lies we have been told for so many years. Get angry and pray that God will give us eyes to see the truth about unhealthy food.
Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.” Turning our thoughts from negative to positive is a huge step towards healing. A lot of the words that we tell ourselves are completely not true and we know that they aren’t true (one of mine is “I am such an idiot.” At times it’s “I am SO stupid.”), but we keep saying them to ourselves. We need to remind ourselves how valuable we are to Jesus. After all, he did die for us so we must be pretty special to Him. Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Prayer and memorizing scripture can help turn our thoughts more positive. 2 Corinthians 10:5 – “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” It takes hard work and discipline but it can be done.
When we are saved as Christians are hearts are opened to a lot of sinful things that we are to turn away from, but there are other sins that take longer for us to recognize. We are to be always praying that the Lord will reveal to us how we can continue to grow. I hope that you will see that putting aside addictive foods is part of that growth. It is not the only part, and there are a few other sins that are more destructive to our physical health (like recreational drugs, alcohol, cigarettes), but not that many. In fact, cigarettes take a long time for health problems to arise in most people while in recent years more and more young people are developing diabetes and other health problems because of ultra-processed foods. Ulra-processed foods might be worse than cigarettes.
I once was in a group Bible study and a man that was in our group was having serious health problems. He had been to a lot of doctors trying to figure out what the problem was. I asked him if he thought it might be food related and he said, “that is what I am afraid of.” To me, if an illness is food related that is good because to correct the problem he wouldn’t need to take drugs. But he would rather take drugs than give up his favorite (addictive) foods. There are a lot of us that feel this way; it is not unique to him. We should be praying for the strength to give up what is making us unhealthy.
I think about how hard life is and how unpredictable, and sometimes too predictable and routine. And then there is my favorite chocolate bar waiting for me at home. I know exactly how it is going to taste and how wonderful it will be nibbling on it for a time. When life is heartbreaking, I can depend on chocolate to lift me up and make me feel better.
Except that feeling better because of chocolate is usually short lived, and it can make me sick. We should not be depending on chocolate. We need Jesus to help us and sustain us. Matthew 11:28-30. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” This doesn’t mean that life won’t be hard with Jesus. It will always be hard, but Jesus will help us. Like when a true friend is standing by you during a trial. The friend’s burden is easy and helpful. The trial is still there and painful.
Real food is nourishing and is delicious if prepared properly, but it should not be the crutch that we run to when life gets overwhelming, or when we are bored. First we need Jesus and then good friends who will point us to Jesus. Then, we need to eat real food, because God did not create real food to be addictive, unlike the big food processing companies.