What If It’s Not What You’re Eating, But What’s Eating You?

We can do everything right with our eating habits and exercise, but if we are not careful, we can let our emotions run wild and wreck our efforts to be well. That’s why it’s so important to not only fill up on good, healthy food, but to make sure you’re keeping your spiritual tank full, too.

I can think of so many times that I’ve caught myself obsessing in my thoughts. For me, being an introvert who spends a lot of time thinking about the issues of life, I sometimes forget to take those thoughts captive and bring them to God in prayer.

When we are tempted to fill in the missing blanks in situations where we don’t have enough information, we end up creating a false story in our mind that almost always ends up in bringing us down — and is very often completely wrong, too! Instead of believing the best, we fear the worst. Then we start acting accordingly. We need to stop this because it feeds fear, anxiety, anger, resentment, hurt feelings — and these things will eat you alive! The body begins to respond to these negative emotions by releasing all kinds of stress hormones and pretty soon it affects your health in a bad way.

Don’t go there! Decide as soon as you start slipping into an emotional pit that you will NOT waste a moment of your God-given time on this earth to entertain such foolish thinking. You are made for more than that. Forgive all offenses quickly and completely. Turn your worries into prayers. Transform your fears into opportunities to praise God for His goodness in your life. It’s not as bad as your mind wants to think it is!

It’s taken me a lot of years to get to this place, but I’ve finally realized that for my own health and well being, I must learn to lighten up about things I’m faced with in this life. I can’t afford to take life so seriously that I dwell and dwell and dwell on stuff until it makes me sick. Worrying about what people think was a giant sensitive spot for me. I finally faced the fact that it is impossible to please everyone all the time. People won’t always understand me or why I do the things I do. Sometimes, I’ll make them downright mad. There used to be a time I couldn’t live with the idea of anyone being mad at me. But you know what? I found such freedom in letting all that people pleasing nonsense go.

As God has changed me in this way, He has also helped me to be more compassionate and forgiving towards the actions of others, too. Because the truth is, we all want to be loved, and when we act out in negative ways, it’s usually from a root of not feeling loved. The only way to keep a right perspective is to only look to God to fill your empty places. Never look to another human being to fill you up. They can’t do it. They weren’t made to. When you let people off that hook, it completely takes away the need to be offended because you never expected them to fill you up in the first place.

Jesus is all you need. Look to him to guide you to health and wellness. It’s not just about the physical food you put into your body. Yes, you need to make wise choices and stop putting garbage into your body. But that alone is not enough. Your willpower and determination are not even enough. It takes total trust in God, knowing He is more than enough.

“Don’t waste your energy striving for perishable food like that. Work for the food that sticks with you, food that nourishes your lasting life, food the Son of Man provides. He and what he does are guaranteed by God the Father to last.” ~ John 6:27 (The Message)

image credit: home grown hospitality