We Are Not Without Hope

For years, I kept two wardrobes in my closet; one for my preferable weight and one for the eventual point when my smaller clothes no longer fit. I always assumed it was just a matter of time…it wasn’t really IF the weight would come back, but when.

You would think we could just choose to have a better grasp or grip on our lives, that we would understand situations and realize that we always have options and choices. However, no matter how plausible it sounds, a lot of people with food issues would say they often feel completely helpless when put in situations where they are tempted by food. Why is this? What makes us so vulnerable?

The children of Israel stood at the brink of possessing the land God had promised them. They sent out a party to scout thing out and they returned after 40 days to report to Moses.

Caleb came back with a positive report. He took God at His word because he had witnessed him do great wonders up to that point. He had watched as the plagues were unleashed upon the Egyptians; walked through the Red Sea on dry ground; and he had witnessed God’s direction as he led them through the wilderness with a pillar of clouds by day and a pillar of fire by night. Caleb was ready to trust God to take them through because he fully trusted God to do what he said he would do. But, the others didn’t see things quite the same way. 

They reported, “We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” Indeed, their background and previous experience was captivity. All twelve men who went on that reconnaissance mission into Canaan had grown up as slaves in Egypt.  

Their past experience was one of bondage. In essence, they had been conditioned to feel helpless. While Caleb and Joshua were ready to step out of their pasts into the future God had promised, the rest chose to shrink back to revert to the more comfortable, although misguided, trappings of their past. Even though they now stood free on the border of promise, their minds were still bound by their past experience.

Just like those former slaves, our past experiences with food can convince us that we also have no hope; that we are slaves to the draw of food. But, God’s word speaks of a totally different reality. It speaks freedom from condemnation and it promises that, as children of God, we have the very same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead living in us and working through us. 

The Holy Spirit can lead you into all truth and He can renew your mind. Ask God to fill you with renewed hope today.