Break Free From Overeating: Your Plan for a Healthy Relationship With FoodSample

While we do have a personal responsibility to care for our bodies, it is also vital to recognize the role that satan plays in the battle. We need to understand the hurdles he throws as he tries to steal, kill, and destroy our health and redirect us away from God and His purpose.

Satan is keenly aware of our vulnerabilities. He exploits our desire for immediate gratification and tempts us to make impulsive decisions. He entices us to pursue temporary pleasures over discipline. When it comes to eating, his “weapons” can catch us off guard and tempt us to binge, overindulge, and make poor choices.

As mentioned, emotions are also often a catalyst for overeating and can turn food into a coping strategy for stress, boredom, sadness, or even joy. Satan, the master deceiver, capitalizes on these feelings and whispers lies, telling us food will fill our emotional voids and provide comfort. He distorts God’s purpose for food and disguises it as a means of emotional escape. Many of us are spiritually hungry, which leaves us especially vulnerable to his deceptions. He will seize the opportunity to distract us from God - our true sustenance.

Satan is manipulative and has also mastered the cunning art of justification. When faced with unhealthy eating options and overindulgence, we tend to buy into his subtle whispers of rationalization and allow him to downplay the seriousness of gluttony. Satan knows we can beat ourselves up after overindulging and wants us to feel defeated and ashamed and ultimately to hide from God.

Another tactic satan loves is skewed societal norms that shape our perceptions of what acceptable eating habits are. We’re bombarded through advertisements and media with all sorts of messages that embrace and even glorify indulgence and excess.

Society’s standards of beauty and physical appearance introduce another layer to the battle. Satan plays on our insecurities as we fall victim to the comparison game. We can look at women with perfect bodies and think, “I’ll never look like that,” so we throw in the towel and turn once again to food for comfort. This can add further to an unhealthy relationship with food as food can become a means of coping with feelings of discouragement, inadequacy, and insecurity.

All of this is important to know because once we are aware of the enemy’s plot of destruction for our life, the more we realize our need for God’s help and protection.