Weight Loss and God?

“Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, 'This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt'?” Job 38:8-11.

Last night I started a Bible study with Setting Captives Free called The Lord’s Table. It is a study about eating right and being healthy and losing weight- but not for our own benefit and desire, but to bring glory to God. The first night really rocked me. For as long as I can remember, I have had poor self-image. I remember being ten-years old and standing in front of a wall of mirrors at my grandmothers’ house and her coming up behind me and saying, “Wow, you’re getting a little chunky.” I’ve never been the same since. I also remember being in 4th grade sitting in the backseat of our family Volvo Station Wagon crying because my legs were too fat because they didn’t have a gap in between them when I sat down or when I stood up. And in all this time, I’ve never realized that the reasons I wanted to lose weight were out of my own selfish motivation. I wanted to look good, to feel good, and for people to notice that I look nice or was pretty or really thin. Not that I want to be a supermodel, because it’s just not in the cards for me, but I just wanted to be—cute. However, after starting the study last night, I realize that I’ve been going about weight loss all the wrong way. If I change my perspective to wanting to bring glory to God through weight loss, then my motives are right and I’m not being selfish and will probably have much better results because I won’t have done something on my own-but through the help of the Lord. As I was wrapping up Job this morning, I came across the verses above and was really stunned by them. It’s so amazing to think about how God has complete control over every single thing in creation. He gave the rivers a place to flow, gave the stars a place in the sky, put the clouds in the air and told them to hold in the rain, and the oceans’ waves where to stop. Holy buckets! Again, not that these are particularly new ideas that I’ve learned, but putting them in perspective with this new study makes it seem so much more realistic that I can reach my goal-not of my own volition or power or strength, but by the grace and strength of God who has done all of these amazing feats. If He can tell the waves where to stop crashing, He can certainly tell me when to stop eating just because I’m eating, not because I’m hungry. I really feel empowered by this new sense of freedom, and find rest in knowing that if I put my work in (which I will definitely have to do-and stop being quite as lazy), that God will take care of the rest and through all of this, I can bring glory to God.