Food discipline on the weekends

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Roman’s 14:17)

The most common cause of indiscipline on the weekends is overeating. Sometimes this causes issues of intestinal colic, obesity and sluggishness. Though the side effects can be countered by diligent exercise most of the time and in some cases medically, why take the risk of overeating? Weekends are a useful time for us if we make good use of it. We are called to live in the righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. So we must concentrate on the will of God and be led by the Holy Spirit. Overeating whether it may cause physical issues or not always causes a waste of time.

Let me give you an example, suppose you eat four meals a day and overeat every time. On an average per meal you are spending seven minutes more due to overeating. So if we do the math, 7 minutes multiplied by 4 meals which is then multiplied by 365 days we get 10220 minutes. When you convert these minutes into hours you’d get 170.33 hours which is equivalent to 7.1 days. So it’s roughly a week of your life wasted. Now think about this in another way, you don’t overeat so often by which you save up a lot of time. You then have about a week’s worth of time to utilize. Speaking of which, use your time wisely and constructively.

This means that if you make efforts to control your appetite for food and drink you potentially get more time to use for good. Self control is wise thing to have as a believer in Christ. In fact self control is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit (read Galatians 5:22-23). While overeating or gluttony works against the concept of self control. So desire the fruit of Spirit in your actions as well and avoid overeating.

And again, use your time wisely on the weekends. Exercise safely and well enough, take expert advice if you must. Pray for yourself and others. Worship God more freely.
Read the Bible everyday and even more on weekends when you’d have more free time. Avoid making excuses to skip doing what is right. Don’t do it out of compulsion but rather out of the love of God.

The truth about comfort foods

Isaiah 55:2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.

Romans 14:17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in [the] Holy Spirit.

Food is an important part of life. We all eat to live but some instead even live to eat, which is a wrong way of life. You know that excess eating is related to heart disease and high blood pressure. It can put strain when you walk. Besides over eating can make you look fat. That’s the physical part.

Wrong eating affects emotionally too. Eating certain types of food can be addictive and when such stuff is not there it can make one restless. You peace when dependant on comfort food can become quite shaky.

Wrong eating has had bad ramifications in the Bible too. Esau was a glutton who lost his inheritance to Jacob due trading it for food. The beginning stage of the Israelites complaining against God started when they lusted for Egyptian food instead of trusting God to nourish them. And the biggest one; Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit and by that, death entered the human race.

There’s a trend in people eating a lot of stuff comfort food. Here a person doesn’t eat to meet the needs of body ie for the physical but rather for emotional appeasement. Not just people who are overweight but even normal looking people have been getting into it. Comfort food is used to feel good after a hard days work or after difficult times.

I once was talking to a woman who said that she ate a lot so that she could tackle depression. On talking further I realized she was still in depression, she too understood that her comfort food was harming her. She wanted to leave that habit but found it near impossible to leave it. All that over eating did was make her obese and in a few months she was hospitalized. She not just gorged on food but now got addicted to sleeping pills too. Later by medical treatment she physically recovered and was put on a strict diet. She then by means of prayer and faith in the Lord Jesus decided to face her negative emotions. She took a stand against them instead of hiding her life into excessive eating. She became more confident emotionally and mentally. Also her weight normalized as well.

I’m not saying that emotional eating ie eating comfort foods is the same as gluttony though it possible in some cases that the boundaries between them are blurred. I’ve also noticed that both men and women fall prey to emotional eating. The reasons why people fall into it may differ but everyone needs to be free from it.

To be truly free from such addictions to comfort foods one must be willing to face their weaknesses and troubles with courage. Jesus can give you the courage it takes. One must understand that Jesus is willing to help you if you want to be helped. Take refuge in the Lord Jesus who gives true hope. Asking him in prayer is a sign that you are taking ownership of your situation instead of the situation owning you. Try to change your food habits. Keep fixed times and quantities for eating. Though, not every case may be extreme, you might want to consider medical treatment if you get breathless or have recurring chest pain etc due to overeating. Pray to the Holy Spirit that you take the right decisions with your eating and drinking.