S2. E20. Luke 13:1-9
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[00:00:00] if you're not seeing any results, if you're not seeing any fruit on the fig tree. Doesn't mean to just cut the tree down. Doesn't mean to just stop what you're doing, but examine what you're doing and do this in partnership with the Holy Spirit.
Welcome to Your Daily Bread podcast. I'm your host,
abby Stair, a registered dietician and certified intuitive eating counselor. My prayer is that these bite-sized episodes will help you heal your relationship with food and improve body image, as well as help you grow closer to God. Now, I can't personally heal you, but each week I'll be directing you to the one that can, and that is Jesus.
As a disclaimer, I'm not a pastor, but a sister in Christ providing you with some food for thought for you to bring to the Lord and into your quiet time as your daily bread. Let's dig
Hello. Hello. Welcome back to your Daily Bread podcast. I am so excited to announce that we are entering another scripture series. I put a pull up on my Instagram. [00:01:00] And I asked y'all, Hey, what did you guys think of our Romans 14 series? And we've done an Isaiah series in the past first Corinthians 10 series.
So we, we've done this in the past, but I asked, how did you feel about the Romans 14 series? Would you be okay with us diving into another series now that we're gonna be having some guest episodes once a month to kind of break up my solo episodes and. literally the poll was 100%. Yes. We are ready for the next series.
Alright, so if y'all are here for it, I am also here for it. 'cause the Lord is speaking y'all. The Lord be Lord and he, he really is. He is speaking to me so much through the Gospel of Luke this summer. I've been studying this for the last couple months. I've read Luke a bunch of times, but I don't know what it is y'all.
It is something about this read through this study this time that I am just. Receiving so much wisdom. The Lord is really revealing a lot [00:02:00] through Jesus and he approached certain situations and the parables that he told and how he interacted with his disciples. There's just so much that he's revealing about how this relates to our relationship with food and how we should steward our bodies.
So I'm really excited to be starting a Luke series. I don't know how long we're gonna be in this. The Lord has revealed quite a bit. And like I said, once a month we will, the first week of each month, we will have another guest episode. So I'll kind of break things up a little bit. but it's nice 'cause we'll be talking about a wide variety of topics, but.
Diving into different parables and, and everything in the Gospel of Luke. So I'm really excited. I don't know how long it's gonna last, but I'm really, I'm really excited for this and I'm happy that y'all are along for the ride too. And if you would like to participate in future polls, make sure that you are following me on Instagram at Abby dot Stacy and we got that linked up in the show notes as well.
I'll pray us sin Father God, thank you so much for another day, Lord. Thank you for speaking to us. So intentionally. So [00:03:00] personally, Lord, thank you for the divine wisdom and revelation that you are giving each and every one of us, Lord, and I just praise you and thank you for everything that you are depositing in me and giving me a way, an avenue.
To be able to get your word and your revelations, your teachings out to more and more people, Lord, and I just pray that every single one of these episodes draws people closer to you, Lord, and that you speak so personally, so intentionally into each of their situations and their health journeys and their relationship with food, so that it can lead to deeper healing and transformation, Lord, because I know that that is what you desire.
And Lord, I know that you desire intimacy and relationship with us. So I pray that as we bring these scriptures into our quiet time with you, that it leads to that Lord. I pray that everything that is said in this episode and in this series is not what I want to say, but is what you want to say through me, Lord, have your way.
[00:04:00] Holy Spirit, do only what you can do. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We are gonna be diving into Luke chapter 13, and I'm reading from the NIV version of the Bible. Now, there were some present at the time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered.
Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no. But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those 18 who died when the tower in asylum fell on them, do you think that they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem?
I tell you no, but unless you repent, you two will all perish. Then he told this parable, a man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard. And he went to look for fruit on [00:05:00] it, but did not find any. And he said to the man who took care of the vineyard for three years now, I have been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any.
Cut it down. Why should it use up all the soil, sir? The man replied, leave it alone for one more year and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine. If not. Then cut it down, y'all. That is the word of the Lord. That is Luke chapter 13 verses one through nine. And we're gonna be talking specifically about verses six to nine and talking about the parable.
But I wanted to read the part before to kind of set it up because I like to put this parable in context. We always want to do that. The Lord is saying, he's, he's giving us more time. No, no, no. Let, let me keep working on them, let, let, let me keep pursuing them.
And you have time. Obviously we don't know when Jesus is coming back, but we have time to be repenting and, and [00:06:00] working on ourselves in this sanctification process. Uh, that's really what I believe the parable is talking about, but the Lord, in relation to our relationship with food.
And our health journey really spoke to me, through this parable.
And I think so often when we are working on health goals, if we don't see physical results, were like, alright, I'm done. I give up this workout. Plan's clearly not working for me. And it's like, whoa, whoa. Was that not the right workout plan for you or did you not give it enough time to actually work for you?
Were you not eating in a way that would actually fuel you and help you recover after you workout to make the workouts more effective? Could be the right workout plan, but you might not have given it enough time. You might not have been eating for those goals. You might not have been doing other things to.
Make that effective to actually see results we need to be patient. We are so quick to stop what [00:07:00] we're doing for our health and stop stewarding our bodies well, because we're not seeing results fast enough. And I love what this parable says. Give it one more year.
Didn't say, just give it a couple more months, couple weeks, a couple days. People are like, if they don't see abs in three days of doing a workout plan, they literally give up. And we've all been guilty of this. I know in some way we have all been guilty of this, but it says give it one more year. I'll dig around it and fertilize it.
If it bears fruit next year, fine. If not, then cut it down. Now, I'm not saying that you have to do a workout plan for a year before you switch course necessarily. But I think we need to give things more time to cook. We gotta let it cook normally things. God's way. It takes a lot longer than what we want because we want things like a microwave where God works more like an oven.
And what I love that this verse says, I'll dig around it and fertilize it, then we'll see if it bears fruit in due time. So there's work involved. We're not just gonna sit around and wait to [00:08:00] see if it's going to work. There's work to be put in. And one thing that the Lord revealed to me in this verse is that.
He said, what you pay attention to will improve what you pay attention to will grow. And I think when we do that and we pay attention and we're intentional about things, we increase our awareness around it. It and we can do something about it. We can't fix what we're not aware of. And when I start working with clients, that's typically the first step.
And if you're new to working with me or if you've been working with me for a while and you remember when you first started, but if you're new to working me, then you know, you may be in this stage right now. This is so normal. I typically have clients say, wow, I didn't realize how much I was doing for my health.
That really was a part of diet culture, things that weren't serving me, or things that were not. I wasn't doing things God's way. And there's so many habits and thought patterns and beliefs that are coming to their awareness. [00:09:00] And I said, no, no, no, this is good. Don't get overwhelmed by all of the things.
The Lord has to bring these things to your awareness so that he can prune what is worldly, what is a fleshly motivation, what is a part of diet culture. And then as, Ruth Haley Barton says. Fan into flames. What is good and true. The Lord will do that. He will show you like, Hey, here are the habits that you're doing that aren't of me.
The these are the beliefs that you have that go against my nature and my word. Here are the things that you're doing that aren't serving you, but here are the things that you are. These are the things that you are doing well that you want to continue, and good job with that. But then also, here are the things that you are doing that aren't serving you.
Now let's prune those. Let's unlearn those so that you can replace that and learn what I want for you. And so there's a part when you really start healing your relationship with food and being intentional about your eating and your hunger [00:10:00] and fullness cues, and not relying on an app or tracking certain numbers to tell you when or how much and what to eat, but you actually start turning inward.
You're like, oh, wow. I didn't realize how many of my body's signals and cues I was ignoring. I didn't realize how many disordered food thoughts I had. I just kind of thought. I was being healthy. So there's a level of awareness that we have to have when we start to become intentional. But this is good because that leads to growth.
Anything that you pay attention to and you're intentional about and you're stewarding it well, you're nurturing it, it likely is going to improve and bear better fruit, especially. And I, I would even go as far as to say, only if you are looping God into that experience. And really allowing him to help you sift through that process and help sanctify you and guide the actions that you're taking.
Like if you're gonna be digging around this tree, if you're gonna be fertilizing it, if you're gonna be taking action, let that be. Spirit led [00:11:00] action, and we had an episode a couple weeks ago talking about spirit-led eating. So if you haven't listened to that, definitely go back and listen to that. Because it was so good talking about Romans 14, how to eat in a spirit led way and how to follow the convictions that the Holy Spirit is giving you.
And we see this a lot with finances as well. This principle that what you pay attention to improves. If you start paying attention to your finances and really tracking your spending and your expenses and your bills and your the due dates for different things and your income coming in and different streams and things like that, you are going to improve your finances because you're paying attention to it more and you're tracking normally what you track.
Tends to improve. Now, I'm not saying that you now need to get obsessive with tracking your calories and your macros. You always have to be very prayerful about what the Lord is inviting you into to track what I recommend tracking if you want to. Track something and get some data, but you want to be healing your relationship with food.
I would track [00:12:00] your hunger in fullness cues if you just type in hunger, in fullness, scale on Google, a bunch of images will come up and it'll be a scale from zero to 10. if you are eating at a zero, a one, a two, you are waiting too long to eat.
Or what you ate before was a little too skinny and didn't keep you full for very long. But normally it's that we've waited too long to eat. Now are we are uncomfortably hungry, ravenously hungry, we're irritable. We've waited too long to eat. So you actually wanna start eating at a three out of 10 where it's like, yeah, I could eat, I could wait if necessary.
Absolutely necessary, but like, yeah, no, I, I could eat. It's a pleasant hunger. It's a polite hunger at that point. That's when you want to eat. That will allow you to eat slow enough so that you can. Feel your emerging fullness cues as they're coming up and actually stop eating when you're comfortably full and not keep eating until you're stuffed.
So you wanna stop eating when you're at a seven, outta 10 on that hunger and fullness scale. Most people [00:13:00] wait way too long to eat. They're ravenous, they eat so much, so fast, and then they stop eating when they're eight, nine, or 10 on that scale. And they are so uncomfortably full, so stuffed and often regretful at that point.
So that's what I would track. Instead of tracking macros or calories, if you actually want to get into intuitive eating, get in touch with God's design for the human body. He gave us these built-in mechanisms for hunger and fullness. I would track, okay, at the start of this meal, where am I at on the scale?
Maybe said as like the background on your phone or like, save it as a favorites in your photo. So it's like more accessible Where am I at on this scale, at the beginning of the meal, and then now that I'm done eating, where am I at? Because if you're consistently eating at a one or a two, and then you stop eating at an eight or a nine, ooh, you're waiting too long to eat, then you're probably eating too much too fast in that one sitting.
And if you're not spending at least 20 minutes to eat your meal, you're not giving your body time to actually send you. Fullness cues that start coming up in 15, 20 minutes. So if you eat too [00:14:00] fast, you may be eating too much and you don't realize that until a couple minutes later. That's what I would track.
And so you could start to see trends until you get to a place where you really learned your body. You know, those subtle cues for hunger. You know what a three feels like for you. So you could start eating at that point. And you know. What a five and a six feels like as you're emerging or so that you can stop at a seven.
You know what a seven feels like? That is a beautiful number to track and that will help you to metaphorically be digging around that tree and fertilizing that tree. You're nurturing your relationship with food in that way, and that is such a useful tool. That hunger and fullness scale and tracking that data that's getting you in touch with God's design and the built-in mechanisms for hunger and fullness that God gave us when he designed the human body, that's so much more beneficial for you than just tracking your macros and relying on external numbers to tell you when and what to eat.
This is actually getting you in touch with God's [00:15:00] wisdom. So good. So good. And so that's what I would track. So that when I say like, whatever you track improves, we don't have to jump to tracking disorder things or tracking your weight what diet culture says to track. There's so many other things to track.
There's so many non-scale victories we call them, or non-scale metrics of progress metrics outside of the number on scale or your weight or your BMI that can indicate if you're trending in a good direction with your health. Some good indicators would be how you're stewarding your body leading to the fruits of the spirit.
And we've done episodes on that in the past., But there's also so many other non-scale metrics of progress, like your sleep, your water intake, your mood, your period health. Are you having regular cycles, and what are your symptoms, your gut health, like your bowel movements, your skin. Your breakouts tracking that.
There's so many different things that you can track that are indicators of [00:16:00] your health that have nothing to do with the number on the scale. And arguably these other metrics could be better metrics of your health than the number on the scale. 'cause that really doesn't tell us a lot , of what's really going on underneath it all.
if you're not seeing any results, if you're not seeing any fruit on the fig tree. Doesn't mean to just cut the tree down. Doesn't mean to just stop what you're doing, but examine what you're doing and do this in partnership with the Holy Spirit. James one five says that when you ask the Lord for wisdom, he gives that to you generously.
And the Lord even said to me today that we need to do a series on the podcast going through the book, James. So once we get done with Luke, we'll probably jump into. The book of James. There's so much wisdom in there that we can relate to our relationship with food. but I hope that this is helpful and I hope that this is encouraging, that if you're not seeing results, number one, what results are we looking for?
What are we tracking as metrics of progress? 'cause really success to the Lord is not you hitting your macros every day or, or checking a box with your healthy lifestyle. Success is [00:17:00] obedience. are you actually being obedient to how the Lord has called you to steward your body? Do you even know what that is?
Right? And if not, then we gotta ask him. But it doesn't mean to just give up everything if you're not seeing results, it's to be more intentional,
increase your awareness and keep working at it. Keep taking around. Keep fertilizing it. Keep working on that goal. Like if you have financial goals, we can't just just be praying, right? We gotta pray around our finances. But if you wanna improve your financial situation, we can't just pray, right?
It's like we have to also take aligned spirit led action around that and include the Holy Spirit into all of that. So it's the same with our health. So don't give up on your workout plan if you're not seeing any physical results. The Lord doesn't care about your physical appearance. He looks at your heart.
Right. So I'm not saying that you won't see any physical results with what you're doing, but if you're not, it doesn't mean to just stop what you're doing. It means to probably keep going, examine your motives and the workout plan that you're doing with the Holy Spirit and other things and, and keep going because in a year it could [00:18:00] bear fruit.
And if you're still not seeing fruit and you've tried everything and you've , run out the towel, then maybe it is time to change course. But I think so often because we're very impatient, we want to get fit quick. We don't keep going with meal prepping. We don't keep going with drinking enough water.
We don't keep going with the period tracking. We don't keep going with getting walks in each day, movement in each day, or the workout plan that we're doing. We don't keep going long enough to actually make it a lifestyle and to actually see fruit from that. And I actually like that better. Versus see results from that because I feel like that still can be kind of diet culturey.
Because it's like, well, what results are we tracking? But like, are we seeing good fruit from that? It might take some time, so keep going and take that to the Lord and ask for wisdom around how can you improve if you're not seeing any results? Lord, are these the right things to be tracking? And if not, search my heart, search my motives, but if it is and I am doing the right thing, you want me to keep going, give me renewed [00:19:00] strength.
As I, keep going and open my eyes, give me eyes to see how can I improve with the healthy habit that I'm working on? How can I optimize? How can I keep digging around this and fertilizing it and being sanctified in this whole process? I hope that this is helpful. I hope that this speaks to y'all individually, into your specific situation and is encouraging, and this is why the podcast is called Your Daily Brit.
The whole intention for the show was to give you a scripture. My couple thoughts on it, but then have you take this to the Lord, pray through the scripture, and let the Lord speak to you through it in your specific situation. So I want you to meditate on this. This week, let this be your daily bread and message me on Instagram and let me know what the Lord is speaking to you.
And if you are someone that you know that you need accountability, you know that you need to break up with the scale and really renew your mind and need a faith-based approach and you need a bit more guidance than what listening to the podcast can provide. Then I encourage you [00:20:00] to head to the show notes and book a free 20 minute call with me, and that will kickstart your journey to finding food freedom in Christ.
We'll kind of review how you're currently eating. I'll give you a couple scriptures to speak into your current situation and give you some tangible action steps and see if working together could be a good fit. But either way, we'll make sure that you have some initial action steps that are personalized for you. Thank you for tuning into this week's episode of Your Daily Bread podcast. If anything about this episode resonated with you, I wanna encourage you to share it with three sisters in Christ that would also benefit from learning how to steward their bodies better. I read every comment and review of the show and I appreciate your feedback so much and love hearing your testimonies.
So if the show has impacted you, please consider leaving a review of the show. Are posting on your social media and tagging me because it truly does help it grow, which only further benefits the kingdom. And if you need personalized support on how to heal your relationship with food, click the link in the show notes for ways to work with me.
We have several options for you to get support. See you next week.
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