Day 20

Renewing Your Mind

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will.  –Romans 12:2 NIV

I used to wonder why people (myself included) would realize they were gaining weight yet do nothing about it.  If you ask most overweight people if they enjoy being overweight, they would say no.  If you asked them if they would like to lose weight they say yes.  So what is going on between the no and the yes?  What is preventing so many people from moving from unhappy to happy, unhealthy to healthy, out of control to self-disciplined?

There are a few reasons.  There is lack of personal information regarding healthy nutrition.  There is the constant bombardment of food that we are faced with daily.  There is the assumed lack of self-control and discipline (notice the word assumed).  There is the addictive, compulsive, and emotional use of food.  There are many reasons that prevent people from moving to the no to yes.

 Today I want to address the one I believe is the most challenging.  It is your mind.  Specifically how you think about food.  Do you think of food as nutrition to your body?  Or do you think of food as a friend? Is it your responsibility to feed your body healthy, unprocessed, God made foods?  Or is it your right to eat anything you want whenever you want it?

The world would tell you it is your right to eat whatever you want whenever you want it.  That is why they make it so “convenient” for us.  You can drive thru, or if that’s too much effort, they will drive it to you!  They process, prepare, and package meals for you that will be ready in minutes.  All to save you time.  Save time for what?  To eat more food of course!  Hey, if you eat too much, that’s okay.  You can take a pepto and wash it down with a big gulp.  If you consistently eat too much, and you need some help taking off those convenience pounds, don’t worry, they’ve got 42 channels of infomercials all with the latest gadgets, pills and diets.  None of which take any effort.  Simply pop a pill or work out for 3 minutes and voila! The weight disappears.  Now you can go back to the drive thru and order a McFlurry……all in the name of convenience.

Let’s face it.  When you decide to make healthy choices, you are not going to find a lot of support in the world.  You have to enter a new world.  You have to seek out others who desire the same changes you are.  You have to surround yourself with those who will encourage and support you.  You need to learn about the foods that are most beneficial to you, and the ones that are slowly killing you.  You need to stop thinking of food as a reward, and start seeing it as fuel.

Switching over to healthy eating is difficult.  It is difficult because you have to figure out how to have a healthy relationship with food.  With other addictions it is simple- you just quit it all together.  No more smoking, period.  No more drinking, period.  No more gambling, period.  No more food……doesn’t work.  Somehow we need to learn how to have what we love most at the right times in the right amounts. 

The sooner you transform how you think about food, the easier it will be to transform your eating.  I used to have the attitude of “I deserve this”.   I had quit drinking, smoking, and gambling, and unknowingly needed a replacement.  I found it in the one drug that most Christians still find acceptable- sugar.  When I felt the Lord speaking to my heart and saying I had to quit I had this attitude of “I have given up everything else, what’s wrong with a little sugar?”  The problem was, the Lord wanted me to seek comfort in him, not in anything else.  The fact that it was so difficult to give it up, showed me the priority it had in my life.  The only way I could give it up was to renew my mind.  All the articles I read on the negative affects of sugar wasn’t enough.  Sure, they appealed to the rational part of my mind, but when it was all said and done, I had to change my renew my mind if I was to conquer the emotional side of food.   

I encourage you to set yourself apart from the world in the area of food, just as you have in so many other areas.  Take a look at who you are now, compared with who you were before you were saved.  You have succeeded in setting yourself apart before, I know you can do it again!

Dear Heavenly Father, I confess I have had wrong attitudes about food.  I want to change them.  I want to use food the way you intended me to.  I want to fuel my body with the nutrition it needs, rather than the harmful things it desires.  I ask you to renew my mind towards my eating.  I ask you to speak to my heart and show me the foods that are taking me away from my goals, and more importantly from you. I thank you for giving me the strength and power to make these changes.  In Jesus’ name, Amen