Is Your Belly Your God?

If we love the Lord Jesus and are filled with His Spirit, God will be our God.  We won't have idols in our life. Many today have made their bellies their god. "Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things" {Philippians 3:19}. This verse describes many in our culture. They eat way more than they need, eat way more of stuff they shouldn't, and have no self-control in this area. Are you this way? Have you made your belly your god?

Our culture spends billions on weight loss programs and food. Fast food and microwave food is commonly eaten since many women don't have time to cook nourishing meals. Soda, which has many teaspoons of sugar in one can, is guzzled down like water.  Many care more about satisfying their taste buds and fleshly lusts than they care for their health. Children are getting all of the diseases adults have and are becoming more and more obese and unhealthy.

"Christians ought to watch what they eat. I do not refer here only to overeating, which is a bad thing, but to eating the wrong things. Too many sweets, too many rich things, too much junk. Take a walk through any supermarket and note the space given to soft drinks, candy, packaged snack foods, dry cereals. We could do very well without any of these. Try it for a week. You may be surprised at how dependent you are on them. You might even discover that you are an addict." {Elisabeth Elliot}

Is your god your belly? Do you allow it to boss you around or are you in control of what goes into your mouth? Do you have self-control in all areas of your life? If you are a believer, you have the Spirit of the Living God inside of you and one of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control. 

"We are not to let our appetites control us, but we are to have control over our appetites. (See Deuteronomy 21:20, Proverbs 23:2, 2 Peter 1:5-7, 2 Timothy 3:1-9, and 2 Corinthians 10:5.) The ability to say “no” to anything in excess—self-control—is one of the fruits of the Spirit common to all believers (Galatians 5:22)."{gotquestions.org}

God commands that we be moderate in everything! "And every man that strives for the mastery is temperate in all things" {1 Corinthians 9:25}. Temperate means moderate. We discipline our body for the purpose of godliness. We are temperate in how much we eat, how much money we spend, how many clothes we own, the time spent watching TV, time on the computer, how much we sleep, and even how much we work. 

This means we need to learn self-control in all areas of our lives! "But I can't do this. My body and desires control me!" As long as you say this to yourself, you won't be able to change, for how a man thinketh in his heart, so is he {Proverbs 23:7}. Your thoughts and words have a lot of power. Renew your mind with what God says instead. You can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens you. You are dead and freed from sin. The power of the Holy Spirit lives inside of you. Look up all the verses you need to memorize and change your lies to these truths and then step into the freedom that the Lord died to give you. Accountability is also a great tool. The family of God should be exhorting, rebuking, and encouraging each other in every area of our lives.