Put on Biblical Truth
Today’s post discusses emotional eating, which can be a symptom of an eating disorder. Eating disorders are complex mental health conditions that should be treated by medical professionals. If you think that you may be struggling with an eating disorder, please visit the National Eating Disorders Association website for online support and to find local help near you.
We were driving down I-90, and I was throwing Christmas cookies out the window. We had just gotten married (this was forty years ago) and were on our way to our new life in Missoula, Montana.
“I know,” I’d said a few days earlier as we were packing for the drive home. “Let’s bring some Christmas cookies with us to eat in Montana.”
It was a great idea, but I didn’t have the self-control to enjoy those cookies a couple at a time throughout the upcoming weeks. Instead, I was eating every single Christmas cookie in that Tupperware container, and I couldn’t make myself stop. I knew I’d regret it later, so I did the best thing I could think of—I threw them out the window.
I was 22 years old at the time and five years into my life as an out-of-control eater. Eating was the one thing in my life I thought I would never get over. It controlled me hook, line, and sinker, and I felt unable to stop.
That all changed when I started renewing my mind almost twenty years later. God taught me that Romans 12:2 wasn’t just a good Bible verse. It was a practical tool I could use to change all those things in my life I felt powerless to change.
Paul tells us in that verse that we’re transformed by the renewing of the mind. When we hear the phrase “renew your mind” it often goes in one ear and out the other. I never knew what it meant on a practical level until I began to do it.
When we renew our minds, we’re taking off lies and putting on truth. We’re taking off a cultural perspective and putting on a biblical perspective. And we’re taking off what we learned growing up and putting on what we learn in the Bible.
This works for anything we want to change, including breaking free from the control of food. Let’s see what the renewing of the mind looks like on a practical level with my Christmas cookie experience.
Take off Lies and Put on Truth
One of the lies I believed at that time was that eating is a great way to relax. We had just gotten married, and weddings can be a tad stressful. So as I drove down the highway with my new hubby, I was ready to let loose and enjoy life. Turn up that music! Eat those cookies! Relax a little!
I needed some truth to reign me in! Here’s the truth to “eating is a good way to relax”: eating is a good way to relax ONLY if it doesn’t lead to negative consequences and a life controlled by food.
First Corinthians 6:12 says, “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.” So while it was “lawful” for me to eat those cookies, it wasn’t profitable because not only did I not enjoy eating so many at one time, it had negative consequences in the health and weight department. Eating Christmas cookies and other goodies willy-nilly also led to me being “mastered” by food. It controlled me, and I didn’t feel like I could stop.
Renewing my mind during that road trip would have taught me that eating isn’t a good way for me to relax because I’m the sort of person who tends to eat too much and be controlled by food. I’m far better off if I eat with control.
Take off a Cultural Perspective and Put on a Biblical Perspective
Our culture is all about doing what we want when we want. It’s also about eating what we want when we want! I was the same way. Unless I was on a diet in those days, life was about living it up, having fun, and eating with abandon! I didn’t want to cramp my style by making pesky old “rules” about food—rules that would prevent me from eating all the Christmas cookies I wanted, for example!
Yet God doesn’t buy into this free-spirited philosophy. The Bible says things like, “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness,” and “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.” When I see God’s desire for me, it makes me want to please Him. I’m more willing to create boundaries around food and actually want to follow them because I’ve traded the world’s philosophy for a biblical philosophy.
Take Off What You Learned Growing Up and Replace It with What You Learned in the Bible
One thing I learned growing up was that there is no reason to use self-control with cookies. We often made cookies in our home, and my mom let us eat as much dough as we wanted while mixing up the batter.
By the time the cookies were out of the oven, I was so sick of the cookie dough I almost didn’t feel like eating the cookies. But I did eat them because I knew that “Cookies are tasty, so I should eat them!” Surprisingly, not everyone believes this. My friends who don’t struggle with food believe there is no reason to eat a cookie unless they’re hungry for the cookie!
So in order to have self-control with those Christmas cookies in the car on the way back to Montana, I would have had to change what I learned growing up (there are Christmas cookies in the car, so I should eat them). I could have replaced that belief with a practical truth (I’m not hungry, so why would I want a cookie?) or a biblical truth such as “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31) or “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior, because it is written, ‘you shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Pet. 1:14).
Putting on this new way of thinking would have helped me to eat with control—and would have saved me from throwing all those yummy cookies out the window!
Be Transformed by the Renewing of Your Mind
What I’ve found in over twenty years now of renewing my mind is that truth changes desires. It makes me actually want to eat with control, and that helps me to eat with control. God changes us through the renewing of the mind and we reap those benefits for the rest of our life. I hope you’ll give it a try.
is the author of eight books, including her latest book, Say Goodbye to Emotional Eating. Her top-ranked podcasts, Taste for Truth and the Christian Habits Podcast, have earned over a million downloads and continue to inspire people to break free from their strongholds and grow closer to God. You can connect with Barb at barbraveling.com.
Photograph © Timothy Eberly, used with permission
