Repentance

There is an often overlooked key to becoming free of bondage to food (and other things).  It's not a secret--Jesus shared it from the very start of His public ministry and continually shared it right up to the finish, and He told His disciples to continue to share the same message.  It is understandable if unbelievers don't know about it but even believers seem to be woefully unaware of (or unresponsive to) this remedy which is probably the reason that many believers are in as much bondage as the world.  So what is this door to freedom that Jesus indicated is available to everyone?  Repentance.  Perhaps repentance is not our first thought or the road most travelled because we have to overcome a lot of barriers to walk through that door--denial, pride and preference for the lusts of our flesh to name just a few--stubborn barriers that may be impossible to overcome without the powerful conviction of the Holy Spirit.  But Scripture tells us that "the kindness of God leads you to repentance" (Romans 2:4)--the kindness from Almighty God that can break through hearts "hardened through the deceitfulness of sin" (Hebrews 3:13).  It is the powerful work of the Holy Spirit and the powerful Love of God that can bring the most hardened sinner, and the most addicted overeater, to repentance.  

It is a mistake to think that repentance is only a one-time-event for remission of sin and reconciliation with God for eternal life.  That is the Big One--being saved.  We need to repent for our sins and receive Jesus Christ who died to take the place for our sin and rose again as our Lord and Savior, and that is a one-time event that seals us for eternal life with God for good.  But we also need to keep confessing known sin (and thank God that the Holy Spirit reveals it to us) and continue to be filled with the Holy Spirit (especially when we're in bondage and need His power to overcome) and allow Him to sanctify us to become more and more Christlike.  If we limit repentance to just one time for reconciliation to God for eternal life we miss that we also need to be reconciled to God when sin separates us from Him now.  Jesus' death on the Cross took care of the main event and provided for reconciliation of sinful men with a Holy God for eternal life, but we need to continue to repent when sin separates us after we are saved while we walk out our life on earth. 

I employed decades' worth of energy and good intentions in diligently trying to control problematic eating behaviors, all to no avail.  I don't remember ever thinking about repentance.  We have been encouraged to work on the symptom (the overeating) and not the problem (underlying pain and sin).  But that's like trying to get a baby to stop crying instead of feeding his hungry tummy or changing his dirty diaper.  The baby keeps crying no matter how hard you try to get him to stop if you don't feed him or change his diaper, and I kept bingeing no matter how hard I tried to stop (for 15 years) while never dealing with the underlying issues.  My discipline to keep dieting (always sabotaged by the resultant bingeing) and to keep trying to "control" my "problem" (food) may have lasted longer than most because I have the discipline of an elite gymnast.  Others give up trying and resign themselves to a life of overweight or obesity.

I was not even aware of any sin involved in my overeating because the pain was so prevalent.  Not all eating problems are a result of sin, but the likelihood of repentance being necessary when we find ourselves in bondage to something is high.  Overcoming bondage that also involves sin starts with repentance.  Repentance allows for filling of the Holy Spirit in the believer.  Recall (or re-read) from the last 3 posts that it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we can overcome addictions and bondages that have control over us.

Jesus began his earthly ministry with these words:

“From that time on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’” 

 Matthew 4:17 (NIV)

But that’s not all.  Jesus continued to put the emphasis on repentance throughout his entire earthly ministry “from that time on”, from start to finish.  Repentance first, the kingdom of heaven follows.  Jesus didn't continually preach about repentance to make people constantly feel bad, but because it is necessary to be reconciled to God and this is what His whole purpose for coming to earth was.  If Jesus firstly and consistently focused on repentance, then I see no reason why we wouldn’t want to do the same.  In fact, it probably would have been best to start the Seed blog the way Jesus started his ministry, with the call to “Repent!”, but I wasn’t sure how many people in our modern culture would read any further (which may explain some things).  But following the example of Jesus, we need to take care of first things first.  Not all eating problems involve sin but if there is sin involved, then the healing process from bondage to freedom starts with repentance and includes the powerful help of the Holy Spirit.  Repentance is the door through which we can be saved, and repentance breaks strongholds.  Believers need to be willing to continually repent, if need be, to continually “be filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18). 

Jesus emphasized to the disciples that they were to preach repentance as well:

“Then He said to them, ‘These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.’   And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.  Then He said to them, ’Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.  And you are witnesses of these things.’” 

Luke 24:44-48 (NKJV)

And so Peter did so as he exhorted the disciples who witnessed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost with a rushing mighty wind, tongues of fire, and filling of the Holy Spirit, and they were "cut to the heart" and asked Peter, "what shall we do?" and he answered:

“‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.  And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.’”  

Acts 2:38-39 (NIV) 

To the reader who may not have received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, you might be wondering if you can just ask to receive the Holy Spirit.  The answer is no--we have to confess and repent of sin, and accept Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for our sin, before we can receive the Holy Spirit.  Furthermore, repentance itself is a work of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life.  At Pentecost the Holy Spirit came first, they were cut to the heart with conviction, and then they repented and they received the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus continually called people to repentance, and it is still God who moves us to repentance now via His kindness and the conviction of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus said the Holy Spirit would “convict the world of sin”:

“Nevertheless I tell you the truth.  It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.  And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment . .”

John 16:7-8 (NKJV)

The Holy Spirit convicts, our responsibility is to obey and repent.  We choose to either obey or not, and if we obey we then receive the Holy Spirit.  Repentance isn't just deciding you won't do something anymore, it's a change of thinking that caused the behavior in the first place.  By reading the Word of God we can "be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2).  Do you see how this all fits together?  If we read God's Word, inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit can prompt us to conviction which leads us to repentance, receive Forgiveness and filling of the Holy Spirit and the power of the Holy Spirit to change what we could not change by ourselves.  There is power in the Word of God to renew our minds and change us so continue to feed on God's Word.  God's Word spoke all of creation into existence but a culture that increasingly does not believe that is also increasingly ignorant of the power in God's Word. 

Don’t misunderstand—repentance is not a work. We cannot rouse ourselves up to repentance:

“For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.” 

2 Corinthians 7:10 (NKJV)

A “godly sorrow” produces repentance, turning from sin and restoring relationship with God.  It is initiated by God, and it is by His Grace:

“And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.  Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.” 

 2 Timothy 2:24-26 (NIV)

The Puritans used to pray for “the gift of tears”. 

Having said all that, there are a variety of reasons why people don’t eat well, and not all of it is sin.  You may have allowed a relationship with food to replace a relationship with God not realizing that God desires relationship with you.  On the other hand, you may have made food an idol.  However, don’t confuse enjoying food with idolizing food.  Since God gives us food to enjoy, then it isn’t an idol if we enjoy it.  Perhaps you have simply developed some out-of-balance eating behaviors--that wouldn’t be unusual in a culture that has flipped a healthy diet upside down (and it is the reason I have also shared the N.E.W. LIFE Eating Plan in the N.E.W. LIFE e-book).  That may or may not be sin if you have become a poor steward of your health.  Or you may be guilty of the sin of gluttony.  Or maybe you don’t think God cares about what you eat as you endeavor to keep your priorities right with Him and, if so, you’d be partly right.  When I began to lead the first Christ-centered support/recovery group for people in bondage to food I was so gung-ho to tell people about the freedom I had received, but God stopped me about 6 months into leading the group and gently revealed that while He does grieve for their diseases and bondages, even if they remain obese or anorexic to the grave that is not His first priority for them (like I was making it sound), but that His first priority is relationship with them.  Duh.  Guess what happens when you get that right?  When people would ask me how I lost all the weight I really didn’t have much more to say to explain it other than the closer I got to God the weight “just melted off”.  That was the big Truth that included all the particulars I could share.  

It would not be helpful, but in fact counterproductive, to think something is sin when it is not.  It is important to follow God’s lead because, especially for dieters there is confusion as to what is “good” or “bad” to eat.  For example, so often dieters think they are “bad” if they didn’t follow the rules of a diet, that they “cheated”.  There is real cheating that the Bible calls sin, but I daresay if your relationship is right with God that eating a piece of chocolate cream pie is sin.  Does enjoying a bowl of ice cream mean you have gone a “crooked path” (Proverbs 10:9) or enjoying a piece of wedding cake mean you have lost your integrity?  If you eat a piece of chocolate does that mean you are a liar, a deceiver, or an adulterer?  These are what the Bible calls cheating.  God forbid, dear reader, that you would misconstrue what I am saying and think you are in sin when you enjoy a bowl of ice cream.  You may be, or you may not be.  It’s important to be available to let the Holy Spirit reveal to you if there is any sin involved in your eating that requires repentance.

So if you are struggling with a bondage to food ask God to reveal if there is any sin.  In my case, the Holy Spirit did indeed convict me of the sin of gluttony.  I was not even consciously aware of it at the time, but as I stood in front of the refrigerator bingeing for the umpteenth time as I had done for 15 years straight, but this time thinking "something is obviously wrong" and wanting to know what it was (I could not then label the pain) suddenly I felt very bad for eating so much food when there were people starving in the world.  I do not remember ever consciously having that thought before that night.  I believe that was the conviction of the Holy Spirit (of my sin) because not only did I suddenly “see” something I had not thought of before, but for the first time I felt conviction, not condemnation.  For all 15 years prior I had only felt self-condemnation for my weight and lack of willpower.  I didn’t understand it then, but I know the difference now—conviction is from the Holy Spirit, condemnation is not:

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus . . .” 

Romans 8:1 (NIV)

So while my overeating was driven by underlying pain (which I could not yet then label but God began to reveal), I was also sinning (which the Holy Spirit revealed and convicted me of).  I also know that was the Holy Spirit that night because it was the key turning point from going ever further deeper into addiction and beginning the process of turning and coming up out of it.  The Holy Spirit wrought a change in me as I finally came out of so much denial and not only realized clearly, “Something is obviously wrong”, but also began to ask the question of God, “What is wrong?”  I couldn’t label the pain yet, but God was leading and I was beginning to “understand” at a very elementary level what the Holy Spirit would continue to reveal (truth!) throughout the process that led to freedom.  Jesus said the Holy Spirit is “the Spirit of truth . . . He dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:16-17, NKJV) and “He will teach you all things” (John 14:26, NKJV).  The change had begun, a powerful work of the Holy Spirit.   

Having said all that about repentance, the next blog post is really important because overcoming addiction and bondage to food is most often a process.  Don't believe the lie that God is tired of your repeated "failure" in the process of Healing.  Don't give up--keep confessing and keep repenting.  The truth is continual confession is evidence of true salvation and a faith which pleases God.  God does not tire of the repentant sinner, but the unrepentant one.

For more help in the meantime you can check out the N.E.W. LIFE e-book which includes more support, the N.E.W. LIFE Eating Plan and additional nutrition information.

Your Christian dietitian and friend in Christ,

Diane