God can and does use anything and everything to speak to us and move in our lives. It’s such a beautiful, humbling, amazing thing to watch Him work through everyday life and circumstances, and to sense the Divine in the ordinary.

I have struggled with worshiping the idol of my appetite for food my entire life. I started gaining weight when I was 12 and stayed heavy through the rest of my school years. As an adult, my weight has been up and down, with a tendency towards up.

In my head, I understand the multiple priceless benefits of a healthy diet and exercise. What’s even worse is that I really want those many benefits right now and for the future, but the insatiable craving for all things tasty still remains. Twix Bars, cheesecake, pizza, tacos, popcorn, ice cream – I’m ashamed to admit it, but I want the immediate gratification that comes from enjoying these treats even more than I want the many wonderful benefits that would come from abstaining from them.

Last year I read a John Piper message about the renewing of the spirit of the mind, and how God-honoring living springs forth automatically from a mind that is renewed. It is a message that changed my life dramatically, forever and for the better.

A few months ago I started praying that God would renew my eating habits and reset all of my physical appetites by renewing my mind in those areas. I love to fast, and have used fasting successfully as weight control for the last couple of years. But the last six months or so, I haven’t been able to do it. Still, I’ve stubbornly clung to the idea and have rejected any other diet ideas until recently, when God stepped in forcefully to show me another path to follow.

Health problems like cancer and heart disease run in my family anyway, and I had received a disturbing test result at a routine physical recently that got me really thinking about these things. On Sunday, July 6, 2008, during a powerful time of worship at our church, God impressed upon my heart that if I don’t change my health habits, I will probably die young.

The very next day, I received an email from a good friend regarding this topic, in which he suggested several mind-renewing ideas about learning how to eat healthy and take good care of myself. At first when I read it, I thought, sure, I’ll eat healthy, but first I’m going to fast.

But then that Wednesday, at our 7 p.m. home group meeting, we had a time of prayer during which one person would stand in the middle, and everyone else would gather round and pray for them. During that time, people were free and encouraged to share insights, revelations, and observations with the person who was being prayed for. When it was my turn to be prayed for, one of the ladies in the group (an AWESOME prayer warrior) looked right at me and said “God wants you to shelve it. I don’t know what that means, but He wants you to shelve it.”

Immediately when she said that, I knew God was speaking to me through her that He doesn’t want me to fast right now. But almost as immediately, the stubbornness in me argued back and said He couldn’t possibly mean that, He must mean something else.

However, the next morning I couldn’t sleep at about 5 a.m. and was laying in bed praying. I asked God to show me what He meant when He said “shelve it.” And I realized beyond a shadow of a doubt that He wants me to shelve the idea of fasting. I love that He used that word, too, because it means that He doesn’t want me to get rid of the practice of fasting entirely, but that He wants me to put it on a shelf until after I’ve learned how to take care of myself, and to bring it back out at a later time when He tells me to.

That same day, I took my daughter to a local 2nd hand store at her request, and as she was browsing, I went to the book section. I never go to the book section there because there’s no order to the books, but on this day, I felt like there was something there God wanted me to find. And sure enough, on the top rack of books, right in the middle, was a book that jumped out at me called “The Maker’s Diet.” God reached into the river of books in this world and plucked this one out and handed it to me.

So now He’s doing exactly what I wanted Him to do… Through faithful friends and this amazing book, He is renewing my mind in the area of health and food and eating. Thank you, Lord!