All-You-Can-Eat-Buffet
NIV: Proverb 23:20 Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags.
MATTHEW HENRY'S COMMENTS: Intemperance must be avoided in meat as well as drink. He fetches an argument against this sin from the expensiveness of it. (For the wages of sin is death) The drunkard and the glutton hate to be reformed.
MY OBSERVATIONS: There we have it--intemperance/lack of self-control in either food or drink is sin of the same kind. However, we would rather thumb our nose at the alcoholic, than address the issue of gorging ourselves on food. Either heavy food or too much alcohol causes literally and spiritually a deep slumber to come upon us. If we are faithful to confess our sin and repent, God will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It is oh so hard to call our sin of overeating and weight gain gluttony. But if we begin to look at it as that, we will begin on the path to ridding ourselves of this behavior. My excuses failed me in the light of God's Word. I had to admit to gluttony, and begin on my path to turning around and overcoming. I started "dieting" to lose any amount of weight that I could. I ended up losing all of the excess weight and have kept it up because of God's plain and simple word--gluttony.
Almighty God, I set aside my pride this day, as I confess my lack of temperance with food. I pray first Your forgiveness, and then Your cleansing as I seek to restore the Holy Spirit's temple of my body. Make me not proud before others--for we all stand as equally unrighteous if we sin and continue on in sin. Forgive us for the sake of Jesus' name. Amen
NIV: Proverb 23:1 When you sit to dine with a ruler, note well what is before you, 2 and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony. 3 Do not crave his delicacies, for that food is deceptive.
My Observations: We are here commanded to mortify our appetites which have control over us. Again, this verse brings to mind the all-you-can-eat buffets which tempts us to eat beyond what is humanly possible and what is more than what we need to sustain life. When we are offered dishes like pasta, buffalo wings and pizza, all at one meal, we are actually eating three meals because each one of these dishes are a meal in itself and would place us in the calorie range we need on the one dish alone. And then there is the desert bar, which quite honestly, after packing in a meal like that we don't need. Don't we just force down a sample or two of something, just because it is included in the price of the meal? Our new eating habits have to be permanent to be lasting, otherwise, quite dramatically we are advised to put a knife to our throat if we are given to gluttony.
Lord God, all things are good that You have created in proportion and moderation. Help us to mortify this appetite and lack of self-control which has landed us in the predicament we are now in. Help us to remember that there is always someone watching us, and if we publicly expose ourselves as gluttons, what must we do in private? Amen
Today's Diet Tip: 23.- Keep in mind that the purpose of getting together with people is to enjoy their company. Eating does not have to be the main event.
Today's Positive Thought: Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there! (Exercise!)
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Obesity is the fine we pay for exceeding the feed limit.
