Can God Really Help You?

Let me ask you a few questions:

1. How many people do you know that have lost weight and never put it on again?
2. If you do know people as above, do they keep the weight off through excessive exercise?
3. Have you had friends/acquaintances who have lost weight and you have secretly thought ‘you’ll soon put it back on again’, and found that they have within a couple of years (or maybe less even less than a couple of years)?
4. Have you had friends/acquaintances who have lost weight and before they put the weight back on you found yourself thinking ‘Oh, maybe that works, I might try that diet/exercise program’, only to give a sigh of relief when they put the weight back on and it confirms that it doesn’t work so you don’t have to torture yourself trying?
5. Have you had friends/acquaintances that have started at a diet club and successfully lost some weight initially, only to ‘plateau’ after a few weeks, give up, put back on the stone that they lost (plus a bit) and then announce that they are starting again with renewed determination?
6. Do you know people that were effortlessly slim in their younger years, but when you come across them in their middle age you find that they have put weight on?
7. How many people do you know that are genuinely happy with their figures?
8. Are you secretly pleased when you see pictures of celebrities who have put weight on as it just confirms how difficult it is to stay slim? Does it make you feel a bit relieved as it lets you off the hook?

Now I want you to re-read the questions and think carefully about your answers. Then I want you to ask yourself the following question;

      “Deep down do you believe that it is virtually impossible to lose weight and keep it off?”

I realised that my answer to the above question was “Yes”. Deep down inside I did not believe that it was possible to lose weight and keep it off. Even when people had a huge amount of self discipline, eventually it failed them and they started eating again. It would be like the floodgates had opened and the weight would pile back on. I did know some people that had kept weight off through excessive exercise, but eventually the exercise bug waned and the weight gradually crept back on.

Once upon a time, long long ago, in a galaxy far far away, I may have believed that it was possible to live life slim, but years of failure (my own and others) had convinced me otherwise. So I faced another question (lots of them in this section!) “If deep down I was so convinced that it was impossible to lose weight and keep it off, how on earth could I possibly expect to succeed and why was I even trying?” Fortunately the Bible had an answer. It came down to belief versus unbelief. Jesus raised the issue of unbelief in the following incident:

      “When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him. "What are you arguing with them about?" he asked. A man in the crowd answered, "Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not." "O unbelieving generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me." So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked the boy's father, "How long has he been like this?"  "From childhood," he answered. "It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us." “‘If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes." Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirit. "You deaf and mute spirit," he said, "I command you, come out of him and never enter him again." The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, "He's dead." But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.
      After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, "Why couldn't we drive it out?" He replied, "This kind can come out only by prayer." Mark 9:14-29

The disciples had tried to heal the boy but they had failed and now they were arguing about it with the teachers of the law. Jesus arrived and told them that the problem was ‘unbelief’. Take note here, he didn’t say it was ‘lack of belief’, but ‘unbelief’. Unbelief is not simply a lack of belief; it is a problem all on its own. The disciples were definitely believers. They had seen Jesus perform many miracles and had already been sent out on their own to heal the sick and cast out demons (Mark 6) and had come back ‘on a high’ after their successes. Their ‘belief’ was not the problem; it was the presence of ‘unbelief’ at the same time. It is possible to be an unbelieving believer. It is also possible to be right up close to Jesus and still have unbelief within you. Jesus told them that the way to deal with it was through prayer.

Even if you believe that you can lose weight, if there is doubt and unbelief present at the same time there will only be one outcome: failure. Then you will do what the disciples and the teachers of the law were doing, sit around with your friends and argue (discuss). It was only when Jesus got involved that the situation was resolved.

I have discovered in my walk with God that one of the biggest steps in tackling a problem in my life is simply to acknowledge that it exists. I had never realised that there was such deep rooted unbelief within me about losing weight, but as soon as I acknowledged it, I felt as if there was an instantaneous move forward in the battle. You see our enemy the Devil loves to keep things buried deep within in us, shrouded in darkness. That way we never realise that there is a problem and we don’t even attempt to deal with it. Jesus said that he was the Light, and as soon as we bring things into the light we can see what the problem is and begin to deal with it.

It’s time to bring your unbelief up out of the darkness and into the light of Jesus. Begin to focus on the belief that you can lose weight. Do what Jesus told his disciples to do: pray about your unbelief. Cast it off and rebuke it. Jesus told the father that everything was possible for those who believed. The man proclaimed that he believed and asked Jesus to help him with his unbelief. It is possible for you to lose weight if you believe. Ask Jesus to help you with your unbelief. Go on, do it!

Finally, as you deal with your own unbelief, encourage other people. Don’t let them drag you down through discouragement and arguments. The disciples should never have engaged with the teachers of the law, it was Jesus they needed to listen to. When they did listen to Jesus the miracles happened. The Bible tells us not to be yoked with unbelievers. This can include unbelieving believers. If you want success in your weight loss then be very careful who you ‘hang’ with, unbelievers will drag you down into their pit. Don’t go down into the pit, stay in the light. Stay focused on Jesus.