S2. E17. Romans 14 (part 4)
===
[00:00:00] You can't hear the Holy Spirit about your eating, if your mind is too full of Instagram tips, calorie trackers, and old diet rules, and what other people are saying that are not spirit led. So it's very important. you keep your eyes on the Lord, keep your eyes in the word
Hello. Hello. Welcome back to Your Daily Bread podcast. This is part four of our Romans 14 study, and we are going to be addressing the second [00:01:00] part of Romans 1414 talking about spirit-led eating and discernment. So Father God, thank you so much for this day. We praise you and thank you for the breath in our lungs and that your mercies are new every day.
Lord Jesus, we are just so grateful for your sacrifice, your crucifixion, your resurrection, and just your great sacrifice, Lord, because that has freed us from the old law. You did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill the law, now we can walk in the freedom that you died for. Jesus. I pray that as we go into this episode, that you make your presence known to every single listener, that you provide a loving comfort and signs that, that you are with every single person that is listening to this on the other end, and that you speak into their situation.
Personally, I pray that this episode brings healing. I pray that it draws people near to you, [00:02:00] Lord. And helps them to be obedient and to how you are calling them to steward their bodies in this season and freeze us from religion, but helps us to grow an intimacy with you, Jesus, and establish a deeper relationship with you.
Lord, I pray that this episode equips people to be able to do that, and that everything that I say is not what I want to say, but is what you want to say through me. Thank you Lord. Thank you Jesus. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So Romans 1414 says, I know and am convinced on the authority of the Lord Jesus that no food in and of itself is wrong to eat.
But if someone believes it is wrong, then for that person. It is wrong. And then we jump down to verse 20 and it says, remember, all foods are acceptable, but it is wrong to eat something if it makes another person stumble. It is better not to [00:03:00] eat meat or drink wine or do anything else if it may cause another believer to stumble.
You may believe there is nothing wrong with what you are doing, but keep it between yourself and God. Blessed are those who don't feel guilty for doing something they have decided is right. But if you have doubts on whether or not you should eat something, you are sinning. If you go ahead and do it for you are not following your own convictions.
If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning. So today we're gonna be talking about a very sensitive topic, and we have to remember that. In Romans 14, this is coming off of, the verses that are reminding us not to judge or condemn other believers because we are meant to live in harmony with one another.
And verse 17 says, for the kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. So we're not meant to, beat each other up or judge one [00:04:00] another for, what we eat. And it even says here, whatever your convictions are keep it between you and God.
Your personal convictions are not now something where you need to pressure somebody else to eat the same way, because what works for one person isn't going to work for another person. So we have to, yes, hone in on these verses, but also put it in context. To the whole chapter and what Paul is trying to get across here.
So we have to handle this verse very delicately because a lot of people will read that and be like, well, a cookie's not beneficial for you. A cookie's not good. So why are you eating that? We have to look at number one, you have to listen to last week's episode, but the first part of Romans 14, 14 says that no food in and of itself is wrong to eat.
All foods are deemed clean. They're okay to eat. We have permission to eat all food. But we have to discern with the Holy Spirit to know which foods are best for us to eat, and if a food is okay to eat and the spirit's prompting us, yes, you can eat that. When do we have [00:05:00] that? In what amount? What's the appropriate portion size?
What does my body need? What time of day do I eat this? And things of that nature. Romans 14, five says in a different translation, each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. So you need to be fully convinced of and really know that you know, that, you know, this is what I heard from the spirit and how the Lord wants me to steward my body.
'cause we know that all things are permissible, but not everything is beneficial. And we are called to walk in the spirit. And if you are walking by the spirit, you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. And so some people will see people eating a cookie and assume that they're gratifying the desires of the flesh.
And so that's why I always remind us and say, we are too critical about the specific foods that we're eating. Not recognizing or even acknowledging, or have any knowledge of the fruit that it's producing. So you could be eating something that is a calorie dense food. Something that the world sees as quote unquote bad.
But if you're walking by the spirit, you're giving thanks to God [00:06:00] before eating it. You're acknowledging the Lord. It's leading to kind and gentle self-talk, and peace and self-control. All the things that walking by the spirit provides all of that fruit. You're not gonna be gratifying. The desires of the flesh.
So you could be eating a cookie, but you're not eating the whole sleeve of cookies. You're not eating past the point of uncomfortable fullness. You're not eating to cope emotionally. You're eating a cookie, savoring it, and then moving on. So there's freedom in Christ, but freedom requires discernment.
Freedom doesn't mean eat whatever you want whenever you want. Without consequence. Freedom doesn't mean, eating like it's a free for all freedom means you are no longer under law based pressure. But now you're guided by the voice of the Holy Spirit, which is our wisest counsel. So we don't wanna be relying on our own understanding of what we think we should eat, but actually turning to our wisest counsel and relying on the voice of the Holy Spirit to guide everything that we do in life, [00:07:00] especially our eating choices.
So we wanna ask Holy Spirit, is this food beneficial for me right now? Is this choice leading to peace or anxiety? And if you're looking at a plate of food or an option on a menu and it's giving you anxiety at the thought of eating it, that doesn't necessarily mean that the Holy Spirit's not leading you there because then we have to dig a bit deeper.
Why are you having anxiety around that? Say it's a burger with a bun, real bun, not just a lettuce wrap, and you're having anxiety around that. Is that because the Holy Spirit is prompting you not to eat that right now? Or is that because a worldly food rule crept in and you feel like you shouldn't eat that because it's too many carbs and that's gonna lead you to gain weight?
Because I can tell you if you're craving the burger and fries with a real bun, but you order the salad instead because you think you should be eating that because the salad is healthier and more nutrient dense. if you were really craving something hearty and meaty and warm and carb heavy, honestly, and something with more iron, but then you choose something that's cold and [00:08:00] crunchy like a salad, you're probably gonna have a lack of satisfaction after that meal that could trigger a binge.
And overeat because you weren't satisfied with your meal earlier on, and you could end up eating more calories than if you just got the burger and fries was fully satisfied and moved on with that experience. So you do wanna ask the Holy Spirit, is this food choice leading to peace? Or is it leading to anxiety?
And if you are feeling any fear or anxiety or a lack of peace around eating that food, we have to discern why I work with a lot of people that have ait, which is the eating disorder that I had avoidant and restrictive food intake disorder. And so people aren't restricting their food intake.
They don't have a fear of food because they want to lose weight or they have a fear of weight gain. They're doing it because they have a fear around food or certain textures, and based on previous traumatic experiences, there's a lot of reasons why people develop ait. So I don't mean to simplify it so much.
But I don't wanna har harp on it too much 'cause this episode's not about arfid, but just to go on to say, sometimes people have a, a fear of food because it's an eating disorder that, that [00:09:00] they're working towards. And it doesn't mean that that food is bad, but that fear is something that we have to work through to be able to heal.
so just know that that piece or anxiety is an indicator and it's something to further examine with the Holy Spirit. Are you having anxiety because it's a food rule that you've been following, or is it really Holy Spirit conviction? Because typically food rules that you have are not the same thing as Holy Spirit conviction.
Food rules are fear-based. They're external. They're not coming from within, but they're coming from external things. whether that's another. Provider that told you that, or an external source or someone on social media, and it's usually rooted in control, wanting to have a grip on your nutrition, have a grip on your weight, or it's coming from culture.
Whereas Holy Spirit conviction is peace based. It's personal, it's purposeful. It's purposeful guidance from within because Emmanuel, God with us, God is in you. So an example of this is if you say your food rule [00:10:00] is, I can't eat carbs after 7:00 PM that's the food rule. how that can look. If it's a Holy Spirit conviction, it could be.
You saying, Hmm, late night eating doesn't serve my sleep or stomach well, and the Lord has asked me to honor my rest. So you wanna ask yourself, is this restriction rooted in fear or faith? Is this something the spirit has asked of me or something that I picked up from the world? Because you could go see an Instagram post that says, oh, don't eat carbs after 7:00 PM So if you don't do that, it's rules focused and it's rooted in fear.
Maybe a fear of gaining weight, but if the Lord has asked you to really prioritize your rest and eating so late at night, so close to your bedtime. Doesn't allow you to sleep well cause we know that like eating so close to bedtime now, I don't think we have to have a hard and fast cutoff of when we eat, but I typically recommend about an hour before you plan to go to sleep, to, stop eating because it's not that that's gonna lead to weight gain, but food is [00:11:00] energy, food is fuel.
And if food is energy, that's waking your body up, it's turning on your digestive system, waking the body up When we're trying to wind our body down, now there's gonna be instances where you have to eat closer to bed, depending on like work schedules and sports and things like that. But that's why we have to, we can't have these hard and fast rules and we have to.
You know, be flexible with ourselves and always in tune with the spirit because the spirit knows what you need when, and so if the Lord's been really putting on your heart to prioritize rest, and you know that eating so late at night disrupts your sleep and doesn't make you feel well, and then subsequently you're not able to prioritize rest.
Then you probably don't want to eat super late at night. We wanna prioritize eating enough, getting our nutrients in earlier on in the day, and having dinner and or dessert or after dinner snack, not too close to when you plan to go to sleep. Doesn't mean it has to be a hard cutoff at seven, but be spirit led in that
just because of food is permissible doesn't mean that it's purposeful. What do I mean [00:12:00] by that? What I mean is, coffee, dairy, gluten, meat, dessert, these are not wrong to eat, but it may not be best for you and your body in this. Specific season. I'm currently in a season where the Lord is really convicting me to have decaf coffee, and that caffeine is just really not agreeing with my system and my hormones right now.
So that doesn't mean that I think that coffee is bad and I'm condemning other people for drinking coffee. No, we're all convicted on different things. You might drink your morning coffee and be totally fine, but for me, this is something that the Lord has really put on my heart. I'm not gonna impose that on you.
I have to be obedient to what the Lord is saying to me. So it's not that coffee is bad, but for me in the season, it's not beneficial. So me restricting it is not living by a worldly food world. It is out of obedience to the Lord. And we see this a lot with dairy. One person may thrive with eating dairy and another might be led to remove it for gut health healing, or something of that nature.
But both [00:13:00] people are being obedient because if the Lord hasn't said anything like, oh, you can't have that, and you're not getting any bodily cues that it's not sitting right with you, then you're good to eat it. Discernment is not a diet plan. It's about tuning into what God is asking you to steward in this season.
So this is why we always wanna pray before you plate, pray before you plate your food. You don't need necessarily a 10 minute prayer, you know, to pray over your smoothie, but invite the spirit into your food decisions. Ask Holy Spirit, what would fuel me today? What does my body need right now? Is this food going to help me feel energized and focus for the work you've given me?
Am I craving this out of desire or distraction? that's a really good one. 'cause sometimes we feel a need to like eat something crunchy because we want to relieve stress or eat something soft to self-soothe. And we may just actually need to do a worship song or go for a walk or. just sit in silence with the Lord or [00:14:00] get some sunshine on our face and not actually eat.
So it's always important to be, tuning into our body and being able to discern between what is a physical hunger and what is an emotional hunger. 'cause sometimes we'll crave foods because of exhaustion or something emotional, and it's not actually physical. So we wanna invite the Lord into our eating experiences and be partnering with the Holy Spirit.
And so this. Is all about having a stronger relationship with God. Because if I'm saying, yeah, like you have to tune into the Spirit and see like what does the Spirit say? Does the Spirit want you to eat that right now or in this season? And you're like, well, I don't know. That's an opportunity as an indicator that you need to spend more time with God so that you know his voice, that you know what the Holy Spirit feels like.
in your body when it's a yes and when it's a no, and when you feel that conviction, and we wanna make sure that we don't confuse guilt with conviction. So conviction that is from the Holy Spirit draws [00:15:00] you closer to God, but it's guilt that pushes you away. It's a guilt that brings shame. So if you feel heaviness, if you feel anxiety or dread after eating, that is not the voice of the Holy Spirit.
It's probably diet, culture or, or the enemy. Holy Spirit conviction feels firm yet freeing. It is that voice of authority and it feels distinctly different that it's just a knowing, but it's freeing. And the Lord may say things firmly, but there is still a kindness there and a gentleness. Matthew 11, 20 through 30, like he's gentle and lowly.
He's compassionate. That is God's heart and Holy Spirit Conviction produces fruit like love, joy, peace, patience. The Lord is so patient with us. He's so kind. He is so gentle, so Holy Spirit conviction may be firm, but it's also freeing. It doesn't bring about guilt and shame, and it actually draws you closer to God.
So it's [00:16:00] important that we make space in our day to listen to what we're feeling in our bodies and to be attuned and also give God room, make room for him to. move in our lives and we need to make room in our schedules to hear from him and to build a strong relationship with him.
You can't hear the Holy Spirit about your eating, if your mind is too full of Instagram tips, calorie trackers, and old diet rules, and what other people are saying that are not spirit led. So it's very important. you keep your eyes on the Lord, keep your eyes in the word so that these things, they're not just in your head, God's word's, not just in your head, but it goes from your head to your heart because everything else flows from that.
We see that in Proverbs four 20 to 23, and it's really important that you are unfollowing or muting, blocking accounts that are leading you astray, that are making you confused. 'cause God is not a God of confusion. And it may already be hard enough for you to discern what is a Holy Spirit conviction and what is a worldly food rule.
[00:17:00] So we need to get rid of those worldly food rules and get closer to God and seek a genuine relationship with him so that you can better discern. And when you do feel anxiety at a restaurant over eating a food you can trust, oh no, this is Holy Spirit conviction, not anxiety around eating a burger with a bun.
So we wanna practice stillness. Silence, solitude, Sabbath. Ask God questions, journal about what he says. Spend adequate time with him. Abide in him. So it gives him room to speak. The Lord is always speaking, but we typically don't sit long enough in his presence to actually allow him to speak.
And lastly, what I wanna say is that we wanna honor our temple from a place of love. Not pressure. So ask the Holy Spirit. What does stewardship look like for me in this season? For one woman, it might be meal prepping for another, it might be letting go of calorie counting. There's no one size fits all with this.
That's why Romans 14 says, each should be convinced in their own mind. And just remember, this is between you and God. One thing that the [00:18:00] Lord has said to me recently is that he wants me when I'm plating my food to plate my vegetables first. I typically was plating my carbs or my protein first and like really like prioritizing protein and just kind of like shoving the vegetables in where get away you fit in.
But the lord's really been putting on my heart to start with the fiber, start with plating my vegetables and then fill in with everything else. so that's a personal conviction for me. And so I do that now out of a place of obedience. but the Lord might have you do something else. And I also brought up the caffeine thing.
So there's specific things that the Lord has told me. But I hope that this episode has given you some good questions to journal on with God, so you have a place to start.
So just know like a couple indicators. There's a difference between turning down dessert. Because of restriction versus conviction. So you always wanna ask yourself why behind why you do things, and that can be a good indicator if you're growing this area and being more spirit led and less led by the world's rules.
if you're not eating before bed because it disrupts sleep versus I'm scared of gaining weight that shows that you're [00:19:00] trending in a good spirit-led direction, choosing a salad because you want fiber and color. Versus I have to be good today, shows that you're also becoming more spirit led and walking in the freedom that the Lord has for you.
So just remember, Jesus wants to eat with you and he also wants to lead you in how to eat. He knows you best. He has every hair in your head counted. He knows you so well. He's had more thoughts about you than there are greens of sand. He knows you so so well. He wants to lead you in how to eat, and it's not going to be through shame or fear.
Because that's not his way. His way is through peace, through his presence, through his power, through his glory, and through his Holy Spirit. And when you let go of rigid rules and lean into his voice, you'll find freedom and wisdom on your plate. And if you need help with this, head to the show notes and book a free 20 minute Food Freedom in Christ.
Call with me. You and I will get on Zoom. We'll see how you're currently eating. I'll give you some initial nutrition tips, and then I will also give you some scriptures to [00:20:00] meditate on as well. I pray that this episode was helpful for you and equips you to go to the Holy Spirit and start building that relationship so that you can be spirit led in all that you do, especially when it comes to healing your relationship with food.
it says here in verse 22, blessed are those who don't feel guilty for doing something they have decided is right. I wanna get you to a place where you are confident in how you're eating and it says, but if you have doubts about whether or not you should be eating something, you're sitting, if you go ahead and do it.
We have to ask ourselves, am I having doubts because I feel pressure by the world to eat a certain way or because I've really heard from the Lord not to do this? So that's why we have to tease that out and grow in the skill and spiritual practice of discernment. And that takes time and that takes, spiritual maturity.
But this is gonna help you in your walk with the Lord.
[00:21:00]
