I struggle with “impulse control” when it comes to food. I don’t really see this problem in other areas of my life, but if you know me, feel free to correct me. I often feel, especially around the holidays, as if I am entirely devoid of self-control when it comes to sugar in particular. I’ve tried to approach this every which way, to figure out how to fix it. “Just don’t do it.” Yeah, that didn’t work. I don’t want to feel yucky. I don’t want to gain weight. I don’t want to come down with diabetes. But here I am, nearing the end of the holidays, and feeling yucky.
So, is this a matter of simple self-control? Is it that I have Candidiasis (a reoccurring health problem)? Am I addicted to sugar? It’s weird because I often have long runs of success in fighting off this compulsion, so why, at certain times, do I struggle? Could it be seasonal depression? Perhaps. I know I’m a stress eater.
This week, I approached this problem from a new angle. I listen to sermons on the radio while I’m driving to work. This week, one little clip that I heard suggested that we are the “temple of the Holy Spirit,” as Scripture tells us. God spoke to me. I’ve been crying out to him to help me with this problem because I’m so out of control. And here, in the middle of a sermon about an entirely different subject, God spoke. This body is a gift from him. It is the temple of the Holy Spirit. If I am truly allowing God to be the King of my life, then I will submit to him in all things. So, this “impulse control” can be submitted under the authority of Christ. What this means is that I must obey him in how I treat this body, no matter how I feel about it. I have this body on loan from him. It’s not out of fear of punishment or even worries about the consequences of my actions (which, by the way, are real and dire). It’s about obedience to God.
We are not God. We don’t get to make those decisions independently from the one true God. Submission to him requires dying to self. And the rewards of that are amazing and eternal.
I’ll let you know how this goes.
