“God is love.”
1 John 4:16b
In the Emotional Eating blog post I provided a
list of questions to help evaluate if you are an emotional eater or not. The next step is to evaluate your
relationship with God. Whether you have
determined you are an “emotional eater” (and remember, that means overemotional
eater) or not it is important to evaluate your relationship with God. For the emotional eater this is critical—your
focus should be to replace your “relationship with food” with a closer
relationship with God. For those who are
not emotional eaters, you may still find that your relationship with God
impacts your behaviors (and thus behavior change ahead).
It all starts with God’s Love.
What does the Bible say about God’s
relationship to the believer? It is a
relationship of unfathomable love by God towards His children:
It is a lavish love:
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” 1 John 3:1a-b (NIV)
He pours His love into our hearts:
“. . . because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit,
who has been given to us.” Romans 5:5 (NIV)
It is an unbelievably merciful, graceful, sacrificial love:
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by
grace you have been saved.”
Ephesians 2:4-5
(NIV)
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s
life for one’s friends.” John 15:13 (NIV)
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only
Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish
but have eternal life.” John 3:16 (NIV)
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we
were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 (NIV)
It is an inseparable love:
“No, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that
neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the
future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able
to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:37-39 (NIV)
It is a very present, personal love:
“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone
loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to
him and make Our home with him.’”
John 14:23 (NKJV)
It
is an initiated, selfless love:
“We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19 (NIV)
It
is a knowable, abiding love:
“If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God
lives in them and they in God. And so we
know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever
lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” 1 John 4:15-16 (NIV)
God loves us with a love that is greater than
we can fully comprehend, and He expects us to love Him back, and others, as
much as we can with the love He shares with us:
“Jesus replied: ‘“Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind”.
This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your
neighbor as yourself.”’” Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV)
God wrote a LOVE letter (the Bible) to you.
Have you read it?
Once we know how much God loves us, our love for Him grows, and our
growing love for God replaces our love for the world and unholy
affections. The N.E.W. LIFE book below is written to help people who struggle with
a poor relationship with food to better health, for individuals in bondage to
food and diets to find freedom, and to help those who have settled for a
relationship with food to discover the incomparably more satisfying
relationship with God and the abundant life that Jesus died to give us.
Dear God, Help us to know how much You Love us as revealed in Your
Holy Word. Fill us with Your Love that
we may love You with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind. In Jesus’ Name, Amen
N.E.W.
LIFE (Nutrition, Exercise, Wellness for LIFE): Biblical Support for Health and
Freedom from Bondage to Food and Diets
Print book $20 https://payhip.com/b/aLGtD
E-book $10 https://payhip.com/b/JKrMG
