Say Goodbye to Emotional EatingSample

We’ve all heard the phrase “renew your mind,” but what does that mean? Paul talks about it in Ephesians:

That, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. (Ephesians 4:22-24)

We can learn several things from this passage. First, renewing involves a taking off and a putting on. Second, it takes place in the mind, and third, both lies (deceit) and truth are involved.

When we renew our minds, we’re taking off the lies that make us overeat and putting on the truth that will set us free from eating more than is good for us.

We’re also taking off the cultural perspective that tells us things like “Chocolate will make you feel better!” and putting on the biblical perspective that tells us God is our best refuge—even better than chocolate.

We’re also taking off what we learned growing up—things like “Two cupcakes are better than one!” and “I should be able to eat what I want when I want!”—and putting on what we learned in the Bible. Things like “it’s not good to eat too much honey” or “discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.”.

When we renew our minds on a regular basis, our attitude toward food will change, but our attitude toward life will also change. We’ll no longer feel like life has to be perfect for us to be happy, because we’ll know from experience that life can be good in any circumstances if life is about God.

And the more we experience life being about God, the less we’ll want to make life about food. God really does transform us through the renewing of the mind. Tomorrow we’ll look at a practical example of renewing.