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The culture loves food. People talk about food, think about food, make food, give food, and travel for food. Eating food is how a lot of people try to make themselves feel better. If we have a bad day, we eat dessert. If I we feel down or sluggish, we drink coffee. If we feel insecure, we do not eat at all.
Shockingly, the lack of eating is just as gluttonous as over eating. This culture uses food to control their outward appearance. Dieting, food diaries, and calorie counting are all done in response to an obsession over food even when it involves eating less. I am guilty of this as well. When I overeat the night before, I usually under eat the day after so I will not feel as fat. Both types of eating are sinful.
Every time gluttons eat or do not eat, their mind is on how food is affecting their body.
When I read C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters years ago, I remember chapter seventeen on gluttony being my favorite part...I encourage you to read it too! I find it interesting that the demons note the unpopularity of the sin of gluttony. It is still true today. I have never heard a sermon preached on the danger of gluttony. This needs to change! Satan uses gluttony to instill rudeness, pickiness, and discontentment in people’s hearts. Just like the old lady in Lewis' story, gluttony is hidden behind one’s “determination to get what [they] want, however troublesome it may be to others” (18). If I have a restaurant in mind to eat at all day, but at the last minute my family decides to eat elsewhere, I get extremely grouchy. Gluttony is selfish and has an “All-I-want” state of mind” (18). Screwtape implies that gluttony of delicacy is far more fatal to the children of God than gluttony of excess. This culture is very particular about what we put into our stomachs even if it is only a little.
When I read C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters years ago, I remember chapter seventeen on gluttony being my favorite part...I encourage you to read it too! I find it interesting that the demons note the unpopularity of the sin of gluttony. It is still true today. I have never heard a sermon preached on the danger of gluttony. This needs to change! Satan uses gluttony to instill rudeness, pickiness, and discontentment in people’s hearts. Just like the old lady in Lewis' story, gluttony is hidden behind one’s “determination to get what [they] want, however troublesome it may be to others” (18). If I have a restaurant in mind to eat at all day, but at the last minute my family decides to eat elsewhere, I get extremely grouchy. Gluttony is selfish and has an “All-I-want” state of mind” (18). Screwtape implies that gluttony of delicacy is far more fatal to the children of God than gluttony of excess. This culture is very particular about what we put into our stomachs even if it is only a little.
Think about your physical, mental, and emotional relationship with food. How are your eating habits? How often do you think of food? Do you use food to change your mood? How often do you think of your body image in relation to food? God wants us to take care of our bodies, but in a way that glorifies Him. While food is meant to be enjoyed, our true job lies in Christ alone. He is the bread of life! He gives us living water that fully satisfies. Let us thirst for God more than drinks. Let us hunger after righteousness more than food!
Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. Philippians 3:19
Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple. 1 Corinthians 3:1
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31
☎︎
The Girl Next Door
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