It can be such a challenge for me to eat healthy.   The things I like to eat aren’t the healthiest.   My wife will tell you for instance that my favorite food is pizza.   I’d like to think it’s something more formal, like steak or lobster.   But, no…it’s really pizza!   When I travel, I have a habit of going to Yelp and looking up the best pizza spot in town and going to get a slice.   I know the best places around the country.   When I’m home, I definitely eat pizza more than I should.   I’m a pizza lover, no doubt…a pizza expert, aficionado, and connoisseur.   I know all the pizza spots, and I know all my preferences. If only pizza were a superfood, healthy like kale!

I like my sweets as well.   Especially fruit snacks, gummi bears, Swedish Fish, and jelly beans.   I like to have candy around that I can snack on, especially in the evening, after dinner.

If I worked out like crazy, perhaps my unhealthy diet would be more excusable. But, since I hardly work out these days, I really need to get my diet right.   I have so many friends around me eating well and exercising well, yet here I am…playing Russian roulette of sorts, hoping that my future health will be great in spite of my bad habits.   It’s foolish, and I know it.   It’s an addiction that is difficult to break.

As a Christian, I have access to God, His wisdom, and His power.   He wants His children to live long and prosper. He wants us wise, unbound, and living life to the fullest.   On top of this, there’s nothing to0 hard for Him. He can break any addiction.

In Deuteronomy 30:15-16, the Lord spoke through Moses to the people, “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it.” 

With every meal, I have a choice.   I can choose life or death. Too often, I choose death.

Boy, that’s dark, isn’t it?   But, it’s also how I believe I need to see my diet. God’s meal for us is healthy and promotes life. Satan’s meal for us is unhealthy and promotes death. God’s meal supports our destiny. Satan’s meal comes against our destiny.

In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Paul writes, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

I ask God every day for the grace to remember that my body is not my own.   It’s His body, His temple, hosting His Spirit within me. My body is not my body.  It’s His.

If I wanted to abuse my mother’s car and go for a reckless joyride, crashing into other cars as if they’re bumper cars, what would she say?   She would say, “What are you doing to MY car?” I can’t treat her car any old way because it’s not my car. I have to treat her car with respect, respecting her wishes for it.

In like manner, God wants us to respect our bodies as His.   We are not our own.   We were bought with a precious price, that of His Son.

I tend to like my freedom to do what I want, eat what I want, etc.   The opposite of freedom is imprisonment and bondage.  My flesh hates imprisonment because my flesh wants what it wants when it wants it, whether what it wants is good for me or not.

The Bible says that freedom is not actually doing what my flesh wants to do.  If I follow the desires of my flesh/sinful nature, I will miss God’s best.  True freedom and life is found in doing what God wants and being alive in the Spirit.

Consider Galatians 6:8 which reads, “Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”  

The Spirit of God is about wisdom, health, prosperity, and eternal life.   The Spirit of God is about healthy eating, taking care of your body, and being the healthy vessel God has called you to be.

There is a degree of surrender in my relationship with God that I have not yet attained.   It’s surrendering my diet to Him at all times.  I know I need to do it, but I need much grace (power and strength from God) to actually carry it out.

I have tools available to help me succeed that I’m well aware of.  For instance, I can fast.  Fasting (not feeding my flesh as I feed my Spirit) can help me be stronger in Spirit and help me get in a good rhythm with regards to healthy eating.

Just one problem…my flesh hates fasting.

This reminds me…in order to break any stronghold, you’ve got to be sick and tired of being bound.   You’ve got to want freedom so bad that you’re willing to sacrifice immensely.  You’ve got to be willing to humble yourself, and do whatever it takes to be free.  It may get ugly.  You may not like what you need to do, but if you are hungry for freedom…desperate for freedom, you do whatever it takes to be free.

Not everyone is willing to humble themselves as necessary for the sake of walking in freedom and victory.  For them, their pride is more important than their freedom.  The person who is hungry for freedom tosses their pride out the door for the sake of being free.

I don’t like to fast.  I don’t like to think that I need to fast.  I like to think that I have what it takes to be free apart from relying on God.  But, I’m reminded of Matthew 17:21, where Jesus gave the example of a demonic spirit that “does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

Is Satan at work in our diets?  Of course he is…telling us to eat all kinds of junk.   Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy.  He will do everything he can to keep us from living the life God has for us.  If he attacks our physical body, and kills us off early, what life is there for us to live for God on the earth?

So, I think I know what I need to do. It’s not easy to break addictions, but God is mighty in battle, and He can make all grace abound to us.   If you’re with me in seeking freedom for whatever, do what God says do, and ask Him for His grace.

Victory is ALREADY ours.  

Additionally, there is NEVER any condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.   So, let’s just remain in Him.

Live the life.