S3. E24. 1 John Series Part 4
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so often we look to things on Earth, things that are man-made to guide us to health not looking to the one who created you and our wisest counsel, because the Holy Spirit can lead you to greater peace, greater joy, greater confidence, and ultimately, greater health.
Welcome to Your Daily Bread podcast. I'm your host, Abbie Stasior, a registered dietitian 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.
Hello, hello. Welcome back to your Daily Bread podcast. Y'all are really loving this 1 John series. Thank you so much for all of your comments [00:01:00] across platforms, and I just wanna read one from kathleenjackson1529, and she said, "This was exactly what I needed to hear. The heaviness and extra stress I've been carrying is out of fear.
I want to break that cycle. I want my default response to always be look to the Lord." Amen, Kathleen. That's really what we want. We wanna seek first him, his kingdom, his righteousness first, because everything else will be added unto us. And I hope that if there's one thing that you're getting from this 1 John series is that perfect love casts out all fear, and fear is not your portion, and God desires to give you peace, and a peace that surpasses all understanding.
So we're gonna be closing out today's 1 John series, going into one of my favorite verses, 1 John 4:4. And we're gonna be talking about if Christians should be using GLP-1 medications like Ozempic, Wegovy, Zepbound, Mounjaro. Is it biblical for Christians to be on GLP-1s? We're gonna get into it. Let me pray us in.
Father God, thank you so much for [00:02:00] this day, for your word. Lord, we just praise you and thank you that your word is sufficient and speaks to us so personally. And thank you, Lord, for sending your Son Jesus to die for us, to be resurrected from the dead, and to have your Spirit dwell within us always so that we are reconciled back to you.
We always have access to you, Holy Spirit, who is our wisest counsel, our comforter, our advocate. Lord, we are just so grateful, and I pray that this episode helps people connect with you, Holy Spirit, and helps us grow a relationship, a friendship, a sensitivity to you, Holy Spirit, so that we can have access to this wise counsel to order our steps, because you delight in all the details of our lives, and you desire to give us wisdom.
So Lord, I pray that everything that's said in this episode is what you want to say through me. Less of me, more of you, and it's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. So we're gonna be diving into 1 John 4:4 that says, " You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He [00:03:00] who is in you is greater than he who is in the world."
I talk about this verse a lot, and we haven't actually done an episode where this is our anchor scripture. And it was interesting, because I'm in this 1 John series, and I definitely wanted to do an episode on this verse, but I'm like, "Lord, there's so many directions that we could go with this.
Where are you leading?" And the Lord kept bringing to mind GLP-1s, and I'm like, " Okay, God, what is it , about this connection?" And the Lord was really placing on my heart that The Holy Spirit is our greatest wisdom, and so often we look to things on Earth, things that are man-made to guide us to health or more confidence.
We think that we're going to get more confidence, more peace, more joy, greater health from these different things in the world, not looking to the one who created you and our wisest counsel, because the Holy Spirit can lead you to greater peace, greater joy, greater confidence, and ultimately, greater health.
So I want to, talk about [00:04:00] GLP-1s today because you may be considering going on one. You may be on one right now. You may have a family member that is taking one of these medications. You may be thinking, "Is this the miracle that I've been praying for? Is this a tool that I need to use?" And my job isn't to tell you yes or no, one way or the other, but it is to remind you to discern and help you
I'm here to shepherd you to the good shepherd and to , help point you to the Holy Spirit to help you discern, is this the right tool for you? And I think that's the key piece with all of this is that GLP-1s are a tool. They are not your savior. They are not your savior. And it's important that we pray before we plan, before you plan to just start taking one in a moment of weakness.
You're fed up with your body. You're fed up with the food noise. You just wanna lose the weight. You have been struggling for so long, and you just want things to be easy. Let me just do this. We are inundated with commercials and ads and people talking about this all of the time. It's on the [00:05:00] front of all of our minds, and it's hard to see so many celebrities on them and for us not to think, "Wow, should I be taking one, too?"
And it's easy to jump into action mode and automatically sign up to take one, and they're making it so much easier to start taking them. It's, like you don't even need to go see a doctor physically anymore. I had a client start taking a GLP, and she just, like I think met with a nurse online virtually.
It was virtually very easy for her to get access to that and just pay out of pocket for it. She didn't go through insurance, but I know sometimes with insurance coverage that can be, also a challenge to get it covered, especially for people that actually feel called to be on them and need that for their health.
So anyway, all of this to say is in a moment of weakness It can be our gut reaction to jump into action mode and start taking a GLP-1, but it's important that we pray before we plan because it's a tool. It's not necessarily good or bad to use them, but it's different for everyone.
I have had clients that have heard confidently [00:06:00] from the Lord, "Yes, this is a tool that I want you to use in this season for your health," and I've had clients that have confidently heard from the Lord, "No, this is not a tool that I want you to use. I'm not inviting you to use this." And I've had clients that have gotten on them and then felt convicted about it, like, " Ooh, you know what?
I think I jumped the gun on this." And the people that have started taking them before consulting the Lord, ultimately what I will say is that the Lord redeems and He does restore, but those people's health, their relationship with food ended up being a lot worse. I have one client she was one of the ones that got the medication online very easily.
She was able to just meet with an online practitioner. She paid out of pocket for the injections and started taking them, and , she couldn't afford it., It got to be too much, and she could no longer afford to keep taking the GLP-1s, so she stopped it very abruptly. And then her hunger cues came back, and she started overeating and binging all the time, gaining more weight [00:07:00] back than where she had originally started.
And she was miserable, and it took her months to really regulate her system back and to continue doing the work on healing her relationship with food. So she was in a worse place after taking it than where she would have been if she hadn't taken it at all or at least prayed, " Lord, is this something that you want me to use?"
So, I would say if you are expecting the GLP-1s to solve everything for you and make everything better, they are not going to do that because it's a tool and it's not your savior. And Jesus says, "Apart from me, you can do nothing." So if you're searching for all of these things through GLPs, we wanna make sure that Jesus is at the center of it.
The second thing that I'll say is that GLP-1s may quiet your food noise, but it's not going to solve and heal your relationship with food, which is really what we want to do. And I think a lot of people get on these because they are so consumed with the food noise, and it does quiet that, and it does quiet your hunger.
But it doesn't necessarily make eating easier. If anything, it can make eating harder because you have to be more intentional about remembering to [00:08:00] eat and properly nourish yourself. A lot of people that are on GLPs end up inadequately nourished, and they're undernourished, they're under-fueled, and they end up with a lot of nutritional deficiencies.
And there are also a lot of risks to taking them. You can get gastroparesis because of the delayed gastric emptying, other GI concerns you can get. People can get nausea. And there's even more risks and concerns than that, but they are not harmless. And they really are meant to be taken as a lifelong medication.
I think a lot of people go in, "Oh, I'll just take this for a couple months," or, "Oh, I'll just do this for a season. I'll do this until I get to the weight that I want and then maintain," and it's really not that simple, especially if you're going in thinking, "I just want to lose the weight. I just wanna get rid of the food noise," and you're not also working on healing your relationship with food.
If you're looking to this as a quick fix and you're trying to bypass actually doing the work to heal your relationship with food then that's a problem. I would say that that is a red flag, and you should pause and take caution before jumping into taking them, a GLP-1 may quiet the food noise [00:09:00] that you have, but it doesn't address the reason why the food noise was there in the first place.
It's not getting to the root. A lot of people experience food noise as a hunger cue. Your body's trying to tell you and bring to the front of your mind, "Hey, I'm hungry. I need some fuel." Sometimes we have food noise because we have a lot of mental restriction, and we've talked about this on the show before.
You have a lot of food rules, a lot of guilt and shame. You have this dialogue going on in your head about the foods that you're eating, and that can lead to a lot of food noise. So there's a lot of reasons why we have food noise, and even if the GLP-1 quiets that, it is just putting a Band-Aid on the problem.
It's not actually getting to the root of the issue. So we wanna take caution with that. And I truly believe that our confidence should always come from Christ and not come from a tool. So even if this is something that you choose to use and you feel called to use, we wanna make sure that Jesus is at the center of it all.
And so the question shouldn't be, should I take a GLP-1? But it should be, Holy Spirit, what are you [00:10:00] inviting me into? Is this a tool that you want me to use?
So as you are thinking about your wisest counsel and reconnecting with the Holy Spirit, who is greater than anything that's in the world, I want you to be thinking and reflecting on these questions this week. Number one, have I truly invited God into this decision, or have I already made up my mind? Is God able to disrupt your plans?
Number two, am I looking to a tool to give me something that only Jesus can ultimately provide? Whether that's peace, confidence, identity, security, health. What is that?
And number three, what is the deeper desire underneath my desire to lose weight? Especially if you wanna get on GLP-1s with the purpose and the goal of losing weight, typically weight loss is a secondary desire. People say that they wanna lose weight, but it's really that they want to get healthy or keep up with their kids or grandkids.
They want to be able to comfortably fit on an airplane or ride a [00:11:00] rollercoaster and feel more comfortable in their skin, , feel more desirable in a relationship. There's a lot that is underneath the surface, so you always wanna discern with the Lord in the safety of the presence of the Lord Peel back the layers.
What is at the root of that desire to lose weight? What are you hoping that weight loss will give you? And the Lord may still invite you into taking a GLP-1. It's not that this is off limits, but you wanna make sure that you're going at it with the Lord, that you have His okay, it's in His will, and that you're not going astray and putting more trust and more wisdom in earthly things than what is greater, the wisest counsel that dwells within you.
And while we're talking about weight loss desires, it's important to note that the way God works in our lives is he's going to do things that bring him glory and bring him honor. We are ambassadors of Christ. That's what scripture says, and we are called to be witnesses. And if we're trying to live that 1 Corinthians [00:12:00] 10:31 life, that whatever we do, whether we eat or drink, we do it all for the glory of God, our methods by which we eat or drink should give God glory.
So if you were to hit your goal weight and lose the weight that you want to lose through a GLP-1 and people asked you, " Hey, you look great. You lost weight. Clearly something has changed. How did you do that? How did you lose the weight?" And if your answer is giving glory to the GLP-1, does that actually give God glory?
And it's not that you as a Christian can't use a GLP-1, but if the Lord leads you into that and you lose weight and people ask you about it, then God is a part of that story. " Hey, I wasn't sure if I should use this, but God led me to this, and he said it was okay. And, you know, I really wasn't sure about it.
There's risks, there's controversy around it. Wasn't sure if I was taking the easy way out or not, , yeah, like , he helped me through it. And, you know, working on healing my relationship with food." This would be an ideal answer, right? That you're healing your relationship with food and the GLP-1 was successful, and you didn't have all these negative side effects, and Jesus was at the center, [00:13:00] right?
That would be, an ideal scenario. So in your discerning, what you want to do is boil it down to, "Lord, how can I steward my body, restore my body back to health in a way that gives you glory and honor?" And if you are not feeling that open door to getting on a GLP-1, it may be because there is something in your heart, at some sort of motivation there that if you were to lose the weight or reach your goal, it wouldn't give God glory, so he's blocking that because it would glorify something else in the world and not what is greater that is within you. So I hope that you actually meet and commune with the Holy Spirit as you're going through these questions, and just be open-handed about it and just go in. If you're currently discerning if you should start a GLP-1, then I pray that the Lord speaks to you personally and that you are able to work through that with him, any resistance you have about his answer.
And we don't wanna assume what he's going to say before we actually hear from him [00:14:00] either, because I've had clients that are like, "I don't know if the Lord wants me to do that. Am I taking the easy way out? Is it a cop-out?" And then they've heard from the Lord, "No, no, no, this is a good tool, and this can genuinely help your health and improve your lab work and blood sugars," things like that.
And they have had great success, and it's not that they are now only depending on the GLP-1, but they're doing it with Jesus and also healing their relationship with food. So I pray that the Lord meets you in your discerning, and that you're able to get clarity around this for yourself and your own health.
And if you're someone that really wants to heal their relationship with food, get to the root of all of these things, whether you're on a GLP-1 or not, and you need help getting Jesus at the center of your health journey, then head to the show notes, and you can book a free 30-minute call with me. I would love to chat with you, and I will 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 sisters in Christ who may also wanna steward their bodies better.
I read every comment, every review of [00:15:00] 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.
