Our life is often all about self and doing what self wants to do. If your stomach is in control of your eating and your life, you are engaging in a form of idolatry. Those of us who would never consider bowing down to a statue to worship, bow down to our appetite and make it a god. The first thing we have to do to lose weight is to stop letting our stomachs be our god. We have to stop being an idolater. We need to admit that we have made our stomachs our god and then deny ourselves.

Sometimes dedicating ourselves to God is as simple as just saying it. "God, I give myself to You. I give my body to You for your purposes. I can't do this on my own. I need the help of the Holy Spirit to remind me of my calling, to encourage me when I think I can't go on and when I think things will never change." After you pray this prayer, God will help you. He will empower you. He can change you from the inside out. He can renew your mind. The change He can bring is not magic, but it is miraculous.


If we are not to be conformed to this world, we have to recognize the world's view of food and eating. Eating what ever you wish seems to be considered an entitlement for the majority of the American population. You work hard and when you come home you should be able to eat whatever you wish. You've earned it, right?


In the United States, a large percentage of people are unhealthy because they are overweight. But no wonder. Just go to a grocery store and see how much of the food there didn't exist in its present form 20 or even 10 years ago. There are salty chips in every conceivable shape and flavor and dozens of flavors of dips to accompany them. There are 31 (and many more) flavors of ice cream. There are sugared cereals by the trainload. There are sweetened soft drinks stacked to the ceiling. There are prime cuts of red meat laden with high-cholesterol fat.


When you look at it that way, it's not a grocery store where you're shopping it's a death trap--unless you learn to shop in a healthy way by shopping on the outside aisles of the store. That's where the living food is like fruit, vegetables, and dairy products. Food on the inside aisles may have been there for months. There is a positive side to grocery shopping. Once upon a time, people could only eat what was in season. Now we can get fresh fruits and vegetables all year long. We have pasteurized and fortified milk and dairy products. We can buy fresh fish and chicken all year round. We are a blessed people when it comes to grocery shopping.



If we are going to dedicate our bodies to God, we are going to have to listen to the Holy Spirit's prompting every time we approach food and that includes when we're shopping. We cannot say, "It's my body, I can do what I want with it." If you have dedicated your body to God, then it is no longer yours. So, no, you can't do what you want with it. Decide who or what are you willing listen to, your stomach or the Holy Spirit?


Philippians 3:19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things