We are More than Conquerors!

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. Matthew 5:29-31
There may be a season on your HEAL Journey, when it’s best for you to completely cut something off and throw it away because it’s separating you from the peace of God and causing you to sin. While HEAL is a freedom-filled approach to food, meaning you can eat any foods you want within the boundaries of hunger and fullness, it is sometimes helpful to refrain from a certain food or activity if it is detrimental to your healing journey.

Jenna, one of my friends on the HEAL Journey shared her experience: “There was a time on my journey where I had to completely take a break from working out. I had gotten so obsessive about it to the point that it totally took over my life. I felt like if I didn’t run eight miles a day I was a failure. It was best for me to totally take a break from it because it had become an idol in my life. I knew it wasn’t going to be forever, but it was the best thing for me during that season of life because God had to renew my mind and heal the way I thought about exercise. Since then, I’ve been able to make exercise a regular part of my life, but now I have a healthy, balanced relationship with it. Now it’s like my chance to worship God and thank him for my healthy, beautiful body. I can go for a three-mile walk or take a simple bike ride. Katy shares a similar experience: I use to weigh myself multiple times a day – sometimes as often as 10 times. God helped me realize that I needed to toss the scale and get it out of my life! It had become an unhealthy obsession that kept me focused on losing weight that I did not need to lose!

For me personally, chocolate, diet soda and artificial sweeteners have the potential to be been stumbling blocks for me – separating me from God’s best. I have also made the personal decision to completely refrain from drinking alcohol because God showed me that it had the potential to be a problem in my life. The night of my high school graduation party, I was completely suffocated from the onset of dark debilitating depression. I was a mess. In desperation to feel better I went upstairs and grabbed a wine cooler from under my bed, which was leftover from one of the parties my friends and I had. Alone, I shut the door and drank the whole bottle in two minutes, hoping it would make me loosen up and feel better. A few years after that, God clearly showed me that alcohol had the potential to be a problem in my life because of my past struggle with depression. Knowing this and seeing how it caused so much pain in my family, I’ve cut it out of my completely. I have never regretted my decision!

While God may make it clear that He wants you to cut something off completely and throw it away, it’s important for us to know that above all we are conquerors in Christ! God has already declared victory in our lives because He is within us. This means that we have the ability to rise above any temptation. God’s word assures us: No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. -1 Corinthians 10:12-14

As much as I like this verse a part of me would rather not hear it because it means that for all the times I’ve given into temptation, God has a provided a way out that I chose not to take. Like the time I spilled my milk on the carpet while eating a huge cookie that I was not hungry for. Looking back, the spilled milk was my way out of this common temptation. But rather than embracing this incident as an escape from my embarrassing “food trance”, I kept on eating my cookie! I hope this truth that God is faithful and that He will provide a way out for us when we are tempted is a refreshing truth, not a condemning one. It is awesome to know that if God is within us, then we are “more than conquerors!” Romans 8:37 assures us “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.” Girls, how we ought to live fearlessly in the light of this truth! There is no temptation you cannot rise above with God on your side!