Food: Friend or Foe?

Two women wrote and edited articles for a health magazine. One treated food like a friend, the other like a foe, even an idol. Making food an idol -- something that usurps God's authority in a person's life -- gobbles peace. Thankfully, God gives a solution to you and the Christian women you care about.   

Let's meet the two editors.

Bonnie stood pretzel stick thin. She chomped only fruit before noon, and every day after work she headed to an athletic club for intense aerobics plus thirty minutes of crunches. Once back at her apartment she inhaled a quick dinner, straddled her stationary bike, and pedaled for an hour while watching TV.

Unlike Bonnie, Carol looked like Marilyn Monroe; curvy and a little jiggly, but no one would call her fat. She walked for exercise when she had time. Divorced and the mom of two grade school kids, she blabbered about losing ten or fifteen pounds but didn't diet.

Years before, Carol hid a secret of emotional eating. Now under less stress, she occasionally spooned a pint of ice cream at a sitting, but no longer binged on cookies and cake.

Which woman has the healthier relationship with food? Do you choose Bonnie or Carol?

I hope you selected Carol. She accepted her curves. Her weight slendered just inside the healthy range for her height.

Bonnie pushed herself to self-determined perfection. One so-call mistake like skipping a workout or eating a pizza slice drove her to self-hatred.

Food was not only her foe but her idol.

The Bible warns, "'You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below'" (Exodus 20:3-4).

As mentioned, an idol is anything or anyone we put on the throne that rightfully belongs to God. Turning food into an idol is an American obsession. Among the results: Obesity. Sixty million Americans twenty years and older are obese, and nine million children are overweight, says the Get America Fit Foundation. Others --about five million in America, mostly women-- have eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia.  

Churches with their potlucks and banquets -- and rarely a sermon on the sin of gluttony -- seem to shut its eyes to this idol worship.

Is food an idol of yours?

In our youth-oriented culture, the temptation to put food first is great. Unless you have Oprah status and embrace a fuller, more realistic figure, you might think yourself un-beautiful unless you dropped 20, 40 or even 100 pounds.

The truth: You are beautiful now.

The Apostle Peter wrote, "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight" (1 Peter 3: 3,4).

These is the message your Christian friend needs to hear. She needs to know her identity in Christ. As she learns and embraces her identity in Him, food as an idol will lose its luster.

Here are a few thing you can do to rid an idol, says Elyse Fitzpatrick, author of Idols of the Heart, Learning to Long for God Alone (P & R Publishing, 2001):

1. Identify the specific words and deeds that represent sinful patterns flowing from the idolatrous focus of your heart. It helps to keep a journal for several days. Jot down the words and deeds, such as "Ate half a bag of chips because I felt sorry for myself" and "Weighed myself several times today."

2. Pray to God, confessing your neediness. Admitting that you're helpless and hopeless without God's grace to smash your idol allows His strength to abound.

3. Repent of your idol worship. When you "do an about-face" you offer up all your thoughts and desires to God, wanting His rule in your life.

4. Continue to hunger for righteousness.

It can be difficult to smash an idol -- if you haven't asked for God's help -- because it seems comforting and real. Remember what happened at the base of Mount Sinai when Moses climbed it and talked with God for 40 days? The people demanded that Aaron make a god for them to worship?

When Moses descended the mountain and saw their idol worship, he experienced righteous anger. Moses commanded all those on the Lord's side to put to death their neighbors who were idolaters.

This is how serious idolatry is, even food, which God created for our pleasure.

You are His Beloved. He is your God. Bow down to Him alone.