The New YouSample

Your Secret Sin

The sin that is tearing us down is gluttony. A glutton is commonly defined as “one given habitually to greedy and voracious eating,” or as “one who eats to excess or who takes pleasure in immoderate eating.” Gluttony is so prevalent that it is almost invisible. Its signs and symptoms are accepted as a normal part of life. You may not think you have a sin relationship with food, and, sure, yours may not be as severe as the next person’s, but if you consistently carry more weight than you’d like to, the odds are not in your favor.

In the church we are notorious for picking the sins we want to make a big deal out of and overlooking the ones that don’t bother us so much. Gluttony is a classic case of that type of thinking. While it is just as much a sin as theft or pride or drunkenness, we have chosen to give it a wink and a smile as we drive through the fast-food lane and upsize our meals. We fall into the pattern we are used to. We eat what we want, when we want, to the point of excess . . . and our enemy smiles.

Have you become a slave to what you put in your mouth? It is easy to do—and it is even easier to justify in today’s food culture. Let us ask another way: Are the foods you put in your mouth doing more to serve your immediate desires or your future dreams and goals? God wants you to make choices that will set you up for success down the road rather than just satisfy your appetite in the short term. He wants to produce self-control—the direct antithesis to gluttony—in you, through His Spirit. Galatians 5:22–23 says, “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

Be careful of letting others convince you that God isn’t concerned with what you eat. You are His careful creation. You are His hands and feet on this earth. He wants to put you to good use and shine through you mightily. The everyday choices you make to keep yourself healthy are so important, both to the quality of your life and to your ability to do all God has planned for you.

Acknowledge that God’s understanding of your physical well-being surpasses your own. If your attitude or consumption of food has held something other than its intended purpose, would you allow Christ to shape your relationship with food into something whole, good and free?