S3. E3. Cheating
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[00:00:00] how often do we not listen to what Jesus is saying? Because we are clinging so tightly to the rules that we have when it comes to our relationship with food. If our bodies are telling us that we're hungry, we say, oh, well it's past 7:00 PM I can't eat. It's more important that we are obedient to Christ's call the stirring in our spirit than holding onto this rigidity.
Welcome to Your Daily Bread podcast. I'm your host, Abbie Stasior, a registered dietician and certified intuitive eating counselor. My prayer is that these bite-sized episodes will help you heal your relationship with food, improve body image, and ultimately help you grow closer to God. Now, I can't personally heal you,
but I'm gonna be directing you to the one that can, and that is Jesus.
Also disclaimer, I'm not a pastor, but a sister in Christ that's offering you some food for thought that you can take into your quiet time with the Lord as your daily bread. Let's dig in.
welcome back to Your Daily Bread [00:01:00] podcast, y'all. I am so excited for today's episode. I had a different plan for this week's episode, actually, and the Lord just smacked me in the face with this scripture and was like, you need to talk about this this week. So I'm like, all right, I just pray that this resonates with someone that is struggling with food rules.
And really clinging so tightly to what they feel like they should be doing, for their health, and really clinging to these food rules. We're gonna be diving into the Gospel of John today and talking about the story of Jesus healing the man at the pool. So Father God, thank you so much for this day.
Thank you for your word, Lord, and we just praise you and thank you for always leading this podcast, leading this show, and for revealing to me, , through your word, something that can really help people's relationship with food. I'm just so in awe of you, Lord. And. So in awe of how you speak to us
and I am so grateful, , to be a vessel for you. And I just pray [00:02:00] that people on the other end of this have ears to hear and soft hearts to be able to receive this message today as you invite us to surrender our way for your way, Lord, and to be obedient to how you call us to steward our bodies. So, Lord, I pray that everything that's said in this episode is not what I want to say, but is what you want to say.
Through me. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
We're gonna be diving into John five starting with verse one. Sometime later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there in Jerusalem, near the sheep gate was a pool, which in , Aramaic is called Bethesda, which is surrounded by five colored colonies.
Here. A great number of disabled people used to lie. The blind, the lame, the paralyzed one who was there had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and [00:03:00] learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, do you want to get Well, sir, the invalid replied, I have no one to help me into the pool.
When the water is stirred, while I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me. Jesus said to him, get up. Pick up your mat and walk. At. Once the man was cured, he picked up his mat and walked. The day in which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jewish leader said to the man who had been healed, it is the Sabbath.
The law forbids you to carry your mat. But he replied, the man who made me well said to me, pick up your mat and walk. Y'all. That is the word of the Lord. And what got me with this scripture is that the Pharisees, the Jewish leaders were saying , it's the Sabbath. You can't do this. You can't pick up your mat.
And the guy who was here was like, Hey. Jesus told me to do this, so I'm just gonna do it. And how often do we [00:04:00] not listen to what Jesus is saying? Because we are clinging so tightly to the rules that we have when it comes to our relationship with food. If our bodies are telling us that we're hungry, we say, oh, well it's past 7:00 PM I can't, I can't eat.
Or, oh, I'm intermittent fasting because I saw a reel yesterday that said that I need to be. Doing intermittent fasting. So I can't eat even though I'm hungry. Oh, I have to track everything that I eat even though it's exhausting and it's stressful and I really don't have time to be tracking.
And it leads to more guilt and shame and all of these things. We do so many things 'cause we feel like we have to, and we put these rules ahead of. What the spirit may actually be inviting us into what Jesus may actually be telling us to do for our relationship with food. And I think we need to be more like this man that was healed.
Regardless of any criticism, regardless of how other people are eating or how other people, how the world thinks you should be eating. If Jesus tells you to do something, [00:05:00] it's like, Hey, Jesus told me to pick up my mat and walk, so I picked up my mat and walked. I think it's important to note that typically when you're healing your relationship with food, when Jesus is healing you, his way is going to challenge your food rules.
He is going to. Come against what you think because for so long you've probably been relying on your own understanding or culture's understanding of how to eat, what's healthy, how to steward your body, how long to exercise for , what type of workout is worth it. And Jesus's way is so different.
You can actually tell sometimes that you are healing and following God's way if it is distinctly different to how you were stewarding your body before. It's more important that we are obedient to Christ's call the stirring in our spirit than holding onto this rigidity. And we see this even with.
Our faith. I mean, you can apply this of course to your relationship with food, but even your faith at large, it is [00:06:00] more important to listen to what the spirit is stirring in your heart than to stick with your Bible plan that day. If your soul is calling for more worship or to journal, or to just meditate on a psalm, don't force sticking with your Bible in a year plan.
Don't stick with it just to check a box because it's more about. Relationship and really being led by the spirit than it is to just stick with the rigid rules that we have. Now, I'm not saying to not be disciplined, but it's important to always be spirit led. That is the most important. So you may have rules like, oh, I can't eat after 7:00 PM but the spirit might whisper to you.
Eat, nourish yourself. You might say, oh, like I have to track everything. And the spirit might say, lay it down. Stop tracking. You might also have this rule , oh, I have to earn food through exercise. And you might hear God say, rest my [00:07:00] child. Just rest, rest in me. I was even reminded with a client yesterday of Psalm 1 27 that God grants sleep and rest to those that he loves.
, I think it's really important to sit and listen to the spirit and not be clinging to these food rules. And Jesus is going to challenge your food rules. And in the scripture too, the way that the man was healed by the pool is completely different than how he was expecting to be healed.
Jesus asks him, do you want to get well? He said, I have no one to get me to the pool. And every time I try and go to the pool, someone gets there ahead of me. And that was the thing at the pool. And that's what they believed, that once the water started springing up, whoever touched it first would be healed.
And. Jesus just tells him to pick up his mat and walk. So how we think we are going to be healed, how we think God is going to do things in our lives is normally not how things happen. And God typically does things in a completely different [00:08:00] way and catches us by surprise. It's important that we release the how and leave the results to him, but we have to be focused on being obedient to what he's calling us to do.
He will take care of the results. And I'm constantly reminding clients of that when it comes , to weight loss. 'cause people say, I'm doing all of these things but I'm not seeing results yet. And there's a million reasons why that can be. But one thing that I'm always reminding clients of, I said, it's not your job to worry about the results.
Jesus doesn't want you to worry about the results. He is calling you to be obedient to how, how he wants you to steward your body, how the spirit is leading you to steward your body. He will take care of the results. Your job is obedience. His job is the results. Your job is to be faithful. His job is to be fruitful.
A couple good questions to ask yourself when you're meditating on this scripture this week is, are the food rules that I'm following, is this a Holy Spirit conviction [00:09:00] or is this a rule that I picked up along the way from culture or media or from somebody else?
Is this actually what the Lord is calling me into and something that he told me to do? Or did I pick this up from culture or the world? And another good question is, is this rule coming from a place of fear? So often we feel like we have to stick with, a certain exercise regimen or, exercise for a certain amount of time because we feel like we have to earn food or burn a certain number of calories, or it's not worth it if we don't sweat and are completely exhausted by the end of our workout, if we don't have all of that, then the workout wasn't worth it.
It didn't count. So you're actually operating out of fear, not from a spirit led place. So I think asking yourself, okay, am I actually surrendered to the spirit? And that's what's leading. Me to stick with, this rule or this discipline? Or am I letting fear rule this
am I trying to keep [00:10:00] control? Am I operating out of self-sufficiency and self-reliance, or am I operating from a place of surrender and trust in the Lord? I think it's also important to ask ourselves always and check in. The question that Jesus asked, do you want to get? Well, I see this with clients that I work with that have a lot of gut health issues.
They are just used to it. They're used to the dysfunction, they're used to working around it and they're like, this is just how it is. This is how it's been for years. It will always be like this. And it doesn't have to be. It doesn't have to be. So I think asking ourselves, do I want to get well?
Do I believe that healing is possible? And there may be a part of you that believes in another part that doesn't. So that's where we can pray. And this is also in the gospels. Jesus, I believe, but help me with my unbelief. Asking ourselves that question is really, really helpful.
This scripture also illuminates that [00:11:00] following Jesus's way when it comes to healing may not make sense to other people. And we have to be comfortable and confident being misunderstood. 'cause as you're healing your relationship with food, God may ask you to eat some foods that previously you were restricting or thought were unsafe or deemed unhealthy or bad.
He might be calling you to eat those foods in peace, not in excess, but eat those foods in peace and guilt free you don't have to have shame around those foods. And the point isn't to eat cake, cookies, chips, ice cream all the time.
The goal is to be in proximity of those foods and have it not send you into a panic. The point is to have peace around those foods, to be able to have an appropriate portion size when the spirit calls you to eat those things and savor it, eat it, enjoy it, and then move on where it's not lingering and consuming all of your thoughts.
That's the point of making peace around these foods and giving yourself [00:12:00] permission and there are some really legalistic Christians that believe that you should only be eating foods that are listed in the Bible and any of these other foods aren't allowed,
I just don't think that's realistic. I don't think that that's biblical. We've talked about that so many times on the podcast., So it's important to release those rules and release those expectations of others because that is a burden that the Lord is not putting on you. If the Lord is calling you to make peace with foods that other people don't agree with you eating, we have to be comfortable being misunderstood 'cause it's more important to listen to Jesus than listen to other people's legalistic rules, especially when it comes to food.
I've said it before, y'all know I've said this, but I'm going to say it again, that I do believe that we are far too critical about the foods that we eat, not realizing the fruit that it may be producing.
so as the Lord is healing your relationship with food, just remember that he is going to challenge your food rules. He's gonna heal you in a much different way than you expect to be [00:13:00] healed. So just expect something different. Just expect to release the how and the how is going to look different than anything that you could conjure up.
'cause his ways are higher than our ways. His thinking's higher than our thinking. And he's probably going to have you start eating in a way that other people don't understand, but it's going to give him glory, and it's actually going to be a very strong witness to other people. And you're gonna learn how to eat as he heals your relationship with food in a way that shows Christ's heart and in a way that gives him all the glory and honor.
And that is a very strong, very strong witness. So I pray that this episode blessed you, and I would encourage you to take an inventory of the food rules that you have and ask the Lord what do you have to say about it? Is this a rule that you want me to have?
And if not, what is your way? . I'll see y'all next week.
Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of Your Daily Bread Podcast. Now, if anything about this episode resonated with you, I wanna encourage you to send it to three [00:14:00] sisters in Christ who may also wanna steward their bodies better.
I read every comment, every review of the show, and I love hearing your testimonies and how the Holy Spirit is meeting you through these episodes. And if you haven't left a review yet, I wanna encourage you to do so 'cause it truly does help the show grow and it. Ultimately benefits the kingdom. And if you need any personalized support with your nutrition and your relationship with food or your body image, head to the show notes and you'll see all the different ways to work with me.
See you next week.
