I am doing an internet based Bible study on honoring God with how I eat. It's called The Lord's Table. In today's study I looked at a Bible verse that says, "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. " — 1 Corinthians 6:12-13"
Mike Cleveland, the author of the Bible study went on to say, "This brings us to a very important truth: we may eat whatever we want (barring medical restrictions issued by your physician), but we must not be mastered by anything. It is perfectly fine for me to eat a cinnamon roll; there is no problem with sharing an ice cream treat at a restaurant with my wife, and I feel no guilt when enjoying a pasta dinner. "All things are lawful for me." It only becomes a problem if I let myself be mastered by any of these foods or by food in general. Paul said, "I will not be brought under the power of any."
I am including this as a blog because I think it's a very important point for anyone regardless of their spiritual beliefs. Sometimes we treat food as the enemy. We blame the donought or the chocolate cake or the pizza steaming with wonderful smelling cheese for our weight gain. Food is not the problem. Lack of self-control is the problem, at least for me and probably for many others. I want to get to the point that I can, as the author of the study says, eat what i want (what I enjoy) without being mastered by that food. For me the muffin I enjoy eating is not the problem. The problem is the 2nd, 3rd and 4th muffins I eat following the first one because I give up all discipline and choose not to say "no" to 2nds and 3rds, etc. I want to get to the point that I control the cookie, the cookie doesn't control me!