An Opportunity for Worship

Dannah Gresh: Sometimes we experience needless shame when it comes to eating yummy things, but Erin Davis encourages us to turn good food into worship prompts.

Erin Davis: You know, God could have created us with digestive tracts and only created one kind of food. But, instead, He created endless varieties of just fruit. He just is a God who heaps blessings on His children, and being grateful for that instead of ashamed of it is a right heart response.

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of Choosing Gratitude, for September 29, 2022. I’m Dannah Gresh.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Here’s a question for you: is there a particular food that when you think of it your immediate response is a feeling of guilt? Maybe it’s ice cream or chocolate chip cookies or pizza. Here’s one for me: tortilla chips at a Mexican restaurant because I know if they’re sitting in the middle of my table, I’m going to end up in trouble.

I don’t know what it is for you, and I probably just made you hungry, but my cohost Dannah and our guest today, Erin Davis, are going to talk about these responses that we have to different foods and help us view food more from God’s perspective.

Erin Davis is the author of a new book, Fasting and Feasting: 40 Devotions to Satisfy the Hungry Heart.” I’ll let you know at the end how you can receive a copy.

Today, Dannah and Erin start by talking about raspberries.

Dannah: Hey, I’ve been reading in advance a reader’s copy of your book, Fasting and Feasting. As long as we’ve known each other, I did not know that we had something in common about raspberries.

Erin: We do?

Dannah: Do you know what it is?

Erin: Well, I know we both love raspberry rumble ice cream. Is that it?

Dannah: Yes. And I like raspberries with chocolate. Anything with raspberries and chocolate, I’m in—totally in. I don’t care what else is with it. Raspberries and chocolate? The answer is “yes.”

But I read in your book that something happens in our refrigerator with your raspberries.

Erin: (laughter) Yes. That’s true. When I buy groceries . . . everybody is going to think this is weird, but I’ll tell it.

Dannah: Yes. It is weird.

Erin: When I buy groceries, I almost always buy myself two little cartons of raspberries. I tell myself, “These are going to be my treat.” So some night after I put the kids to bed, or after I’ve had a great day at work, or done something, I will let myself eat these raspberries.” But I also throw those two packets away almost every time because they mold and I never eat them. That’s weird.

Dannah: Raspberries are like that. It’s weird. Here’s what I’m driving at, though. I was, like, I do that, too. I’m the only one in my family that loves raspberries, so when I buy them, it’s only for me. I don’t ever buy a single pack. I buy a double pack because they’re so good for you. I mean, they’re full of anti-oxidants and all that stuff. But raspberries go bad really fast.

Erin: I know.

Dannah: So what happens, Erin, is I open them, and I’m, like, “I missed it. I missed it, again!” They’re gray and fuzzy. It’s like they’re little shame bombs in my refrigerator.

Erin: Oooo

Dannah: Yes. I feel like there’s a picture in that of how we approach food sometimes. There is a lot of shame associated with the way we enter into our relationship with food. I don’t even know if I should have called it a relationship because food should be fuel. But, do you identify with that?

Erin: Great.

Dannah: Do you see a lot of shame in the way women approach food?

Erin: Yes. People who are listening cannot see how vigorously I am nodding my head as you are saying that. I actually feel the shame before I ever put the raspberries in the refrigerator because I think, I’m not supposed to reward myself with food. That’s a cultural message. I should think of a better way to reward myself. Even though you’re right, raspberries are great for me.

And then, I can never do enough in any given day to feel like I’ve earned a reward. I’m just an achiever. There’s always more to do. I never get my to-do list done. As I said in the previous episode, I tend towards discouragement. So, I never feel like I’ve earned the raspberries. Then I let the raspberries spoil, and then I feel ashamed that I’ve wasted seven bucks, or whatever.

But there are a lot of bigger issues. I would say I think this is more true of women. That might not be the case, but that’s my experience. We have a lot of shame attached to food. We love food. I’m a true foodie. I just think food is a great use of my time and energy, but then we have all this guilt about food. We love to eat, but then, at the same time we’re eating, we’re often saying things like, “Oh, I shouldn’t be eating this.” or “I’m going to start doing better tomorrow.”

Actually, another reason why I wrote this book is I have this great group of friends. They come over to the house pretty often. I love to cook for groups. We will all be at the table eating. The men will go into the other room. They’re just enjoying their food. The women always default to, “Oh, I shouldn’t have this second piece of pizza.” “Oh, I’m on a diet.” “I’m trying Keto tomorrow.” “Oh, I’m going back on Old Thirty tomorrow.”

We’re talking about it while we’re eating it. There’s just this tremendous amount of shame attached to food—not just raspberries, but all kinds of food.

Dannah: My husband actually (maybe he’s an exception to men, I don’t know) says, “I think about eating all day long except when I’m eating.” (laughter) It’s the only time of the day he just eats, “Whatever’s in front of me, I’m going to eat it.”

So what I think is that we want to reframe the way we think about food according to why God created it for us, why God created us to eat. I mean, He didn’t have to create us so that we had taste buds, so that we had the pleasure of tasting something delicious and wonderful. He didn’t have to create us with a digestive tract. He did not have to do that. He chose it.

Erin: Right!

Dannah: If we understand why He created us that way, and why He created food, maybe it could give us a proper view of feasting so that we don’t go through this shame cycle. Then we would approach it from a healthier point of view. That’s what we’re going to try to do today. Erin, where do we begin?

Erin: Well, again, I just want to keep pointing us to the fact that this is a holistic topic in Scripture. I mean, really from beginning to end . . . In the Garden of Eden, in the very beginning, we see food. And in Revelation, at the end of God’s Word, we have a promise of there’s going to be this feast at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. I think there’s going to be food there.

So this is something that spans the breadth of our Bibles; therefore, we need a holistic view of it in our lives, too.

Let me take you to John chapter 21, which I think is such a powerful passage about our attitude towards food. John, chapter 21, verse 10:

Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.’"So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. [So already we’re seeing food because fish is what they eat.]

“Jesus said to them . . .” The “them” here is the disciples. And for context, you need to know that Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection has already happened. As I’m picturing them in this boat, I think they are emotionally shell-shocked.

Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." Now none of the disciples dared ask him, "Who are you?" They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after He was raised from the dead. (vv. 10–14)

There is so much here. I mean, He gives them the fish, but He already has fish cooking. So, He doesn’t need their fish. He has warm bread ready for them. But there’s something so simple here I think we miss it, which is that Jesus here is ministering to His friends with food.

There is the ministry of pancakes, I like to call it, which is related to another story maybe I’ll tell. But there is this idea that food is a blessing. Food is a gift.

And you mentioned, God didn’t have to create us this way. I think that’s really important. Romans 1 tells us that the invisible nature of God can be understood in what He has made. What can we understand about God in the fact that He has created us to need food every day?

Dannah, I know you love creation. There are lots of creatures that aren’t wired that way, like cave-dwelling olms. I think they only have to eat once a decade.

Dannah: What is a cave-dwelling olm? I never even heard of that, Erin. You know about a creature that I don’t know about?

Erin: Ohhh, I love them! They’re like little white lizards that don’t have any eyes. They live in the deep, dark parts of caves . . . and there’s no food down there. God could have made us that way.

I think part of the reason God has given us a constant need for food is that we are aware of our constant need for Him. That little alarm going off in your body . . . This has been a real shift in what God’s really done in my life. When that alarm goes off, like, “Erin, you better eat.” It’s like, “Oh, I have a need? I have a need meter.” God is going to meet the need for me, and then I can receive my food with such gladness because every bit of food, every bite of food I’ll ever put in my mouth was given to me as a gift by God.

It’s part of how He ministers to me. I mean, a bowl of raspberries, Dannah, a bowl of raspberries is one way God says to me, “Erin, I love you. I see you. I want to give you good things. I want to give you . . .” Yes! And when I can receive that bowl of raspberries as a gift, it does change my approach to food. It’s a way He ministers to me, and it’s a way that we can minister to each other. It elevates. It goes beyond the food to the things that God can teach us through it.

Dannah: What a comfort. This is Jesus comforting them, and it’s in such a practical way.

Going back to what we’ve been saying for the last few days is: it’s not about fasting. It’s not about feasting. It’s about having a rhythm, a proper rhythm of fasting and feasting. As we look at this passage, they’ve been out getting fish, but they’ve also been mourning.

Erin: Absolutely.

Dannah: When we mourn, we don’t have an appetite. I’ve been in mourning a few different times. There was one time when my mom walked into the house three days after the event that caused grief and said, “When was the last time you ate?”

And I was, like, “I don’t even remember.”

It had been a few days. The grief floods our hearts, and we don’t eat.

Jesus is coming to them in that state. They’re out there. They’re catching fish for their livelihood. Everything has changed about their lives. They did think they were going to go follow Jesus and His discipleship and save the world, rescue the world. They all had different visions of how that looked. And then, Jesus died on a cross.

They’re grieving their friend. They’re grieving what they thought their life would look like. He says, “Eat.” Just like my mom came to me and said, “When was the last time you ate?” Jesus says, “When was the last time you ate?”

So eating, feasting, could be a good thing. It could say, “The fast is over. The mourning is over. The time of withholding is over. Now, step up to the table.”

I do want to hear your pancake story.

Erin: Okay, I’ll tell it.

I was pregnant with my second son—like very pregnant. My first son was not yet two. Try to remember when you were in that phase of life, or maybe you’re in that phase of life now. You’ve got an eighteen-pound toddler who always wants to cling to the outside of your body, and you’ve got an eight-pound baby who’s on the inside of your body, and you have reached depths of exhaustion you didn’t even think were possible. Right?

Dannah: Right.

Erin: This woman in my church who was just an acquaintance, we were not friends, which is an important application for the story . . . She called me one day and said, “Hey, I want you to come over tomorrow. Bring Eli (who’s my oldest). I want to make you pancakes.”

I was, like, “Okay! I am there!” Which is not really like me, I don’t think, but I was just desperate and tired and low.

The next morning Eli and I got up. We went over in our jammies, and this woman had prepared for us this plate of pancakes. She had toys on the floor for my toddler to play with.

We didn’t have some big, heavy, deep, spiritual conversation. You can even parallel that with the story in John 21 and go, like, “Couldn’t Jesus have talked about something more important? He was going to ascend. They were going to start the Church. There was a lot they could have talked about here, but instead, they shared this simple meal?”

That’s what happened at Mandy’s house. It was one of the most profound meals of my life. That’s not an exaggeration. It was like, “I am seen! I am loved! These warm pancakes are ministering to me. They’re giving me physical energy. They’re giving me spiritual energy to persevere.” I don’t know if she was praying for me or not. I just know I was tremendously strengthened for the next leg of what God had for me by the ministry of pancakes.

I see here that Jesus’ disciples were so strengthened by this hot breakfast that Jesus gave them.

And one of the lessons I’ve learned about food in studying fasting and feasting is: I am not a disembodied spirit. It’s not that Jesus only cares for my spirit and it’s up to me to care for my body. No. Jesus cares about every cell. He cares about my physical cells. He cares about my spiritual cells. He cares about my mental cells. He cares about my emotional cells. We see Him caring for all of those things here for the disciples.

And, for me, that shifts food, too. It’s like, “Yes. God cares about your food. And your food is an opportunity for worship.” It all matters. It’s all important. It is a way that you can love others, too, in just by mirroring what Jesus did here in this sweet passage.

Dannah: Okay. So, let me tell you what just came to my mind as you were saying all of that: As women, we have the opportunity to be Christ in a unique way when we set the table and say, “Come and eat breakfast”—or whatever meal we’re inviting them to.

I think, as I’ve been studying the book of Acts this past year, it’s interesting to me how much of the Christian community takes place around the table, and that they were invited to a table. And, for us, we’re like, “Okay, we’re having deep-dish pizza tonight at Erin’s house,” or “Oh, Erin makes the best popcorn. We’re having popcorn at Erin’s house.” It could be simple. Hospitality could be simple.

But gathering around the table for the Jewish community meant something that it doesn’t to us because the table signified the presence of God. Going back to the tabernacle, the table was called, “The table of the presence—the bread of the presence.” There were loaves of bread representing the twelve tribes were laid out on that table.

I think those early Christians, when they would say, “Hey! Come on over and eat breakfast,” or “Come on over for a feast and sit at my table,” there was an understanding that the presence of Christ was going to be at that table.

So when you say, “We minister with pancakes,” it’s not really . . . I mean, that’s the practical part of it, but the bigger picture here is that we’re inviting them to slow down and have intimacy with you and with Jesus. And that has special implications for us as women. We get to set the table in our homes and invite people into the presence of Jesus through that.

Erin: Yes. I have the verse hanging in my dining room that’s probably hanging in a lot of dining rooms. It comes from Acts. It says, “They broke bread together and gave thanks with glad and sincere hearts.” It’s easy to think that the “giving thanks” was the important part, or the “sincere hearts” was the important part. I think they’re all important.

And you’re right. As women, we do have such a unique opportunity, starting with our own families. I just hope that my sons never say to their future wives, “Well, my mom made this better than you do.” ( I’m training them not to say that.)

But I also hope that the memories they take from their time when we were all at home together, they’re going to be my cinnamon rolls. They’re going to be my fried chicken tacos. They’re going to be my popcorn. And there’s more to all of that.

Sometimes we talk about things being cooked with love. That’s true. I am ministering to my own family daily, or I could be, through food. Now, I could also say, “Ugh! I’m so tired of making dinner every night. Why can’t somebody else make dinner? Can’t we just order pizza? This is such a burden.”

Or it could be, “Every day I have an opportunity to bless my own family with food with what I put on the table.”

Then it extends to the people of God, and it extends to the lost. We can invite lost people into our homes to roast hot dogs at the bonfire or have s’mores. And then those spiritual conversations can flow out of that. So there is ministry to be done around food.

Again, the fact that we all need to eat makes that kind of easy. Right? All your neighbors need to eat. All your kids’ teachers need to eat. All your kids’ friends need to eat. So, it opens a door to conversations. I just think we’re missing some opportunities there to see it as such a great way to minister to the lost and to the saints.

Dannah: Yes. Open our doors so that our tables are available and ready to welcome people into the presence of the Lord through food. Also, just deliver food to people that are shut-up, in need. That’s a really important part because feasting is a beautiful part of our Christian faith.

As you said earlier, our rescue by Jesus Christ is going to culminate at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. Gathering around the table is really a big deal.

Erin, I want to ask you this: we talked about fasting yesterday. We haven’t talked too much about that today. Let’s talk about abundance, because I think that’s where the same comes in. When we misuse food to the point of over-indulging, to the point where our taste buds are, like, “This isn’t any fun anymore.” Stop. I have done that. How do we bring that into alignment in our hearts—the abundance? Is abundance okay?

Erin: It’s a great question. I don’t know about you, if your mom ever did this, but my mom did. When I didn’t want to eat the meatloaf, or whatever it was I didn’t want to eat as a kid, she would say, “There are starving children in Africa.” I didn’t ever understand that as a kid because I was like, “Well, what am I supposed to do? Box this up and send it those to those kids? Like, how does this connect with me?”

I do think, maybe as American Christians, we have collective shame because we do know there are pockets of the world where hunger is a tremendous issue. We do know that there are some legitimate causes for concern there.

But I would say: take that to be true, that’s all true. You can still be so grateful for the abundance the Lord has given you. Thanksgiving is the example that comes to mind.

Several years ago I was hosting Thanksgiving at my house. I set these beautiful tables. I remember I got fresh eucalyptus from the florist that year because I wanted my whole home to have that smell. I had all these clippings of eucalyptus on the tables. I had the best china. My house smelled like the best food.

I walked in and saw all of that and stopped in my tracks and teared up. (I’ll tear up again thinking about it.) That only a God as good as ours would give us so many gifts on a holiday that is meant to give Him thanks. It’s meant to be a day where we bless Him. And, in turn, He gives us beautiful tables and roast turkey and mashed potatoes with Grandma’s gravy and the laughter that happens around the table afterwards. He gives us those gifts. He is a God who gives us abundant life. That’s scriptural.

I’m a farmer, so I see this a lot on my own farm. When the crop comes in, it comes in. You better be ready to can green beans when the green bean crop is ripe because you have green beans coming out of your ears. You better be ready to make blackberry jam, which is what I do every year when my blackberries come ripe because it comes in abundance. Now, I don’t have blackberries on the vine year-round. I see those rhythms of fasting and feasting in my crops.

But, absolutely, to thank the Lord for a mile-high stack of buttermilk pancakes is to affirm, “You are good. You give me good things.” You know, God could have created us with digestive tracts and only created one kind of food.

Dannah: Yes.

Erin: But, instead, He created endless varieties of just fruit. I don’t even know how many kinds of just fruit there are, but hundreds in vegetables. And He just is a God who heaps blessings on His children. Be grateful for that instead of ashamed of it, I think, is a right heart response.

Dannah: What I think, Erin Davis, is that the next time you buy raspberries, and the next time I buy raspberries, we should not wait to deserve them. We should not wait until they rot in our refrigerator. We should eat them on the drive home.

Erin: I agree.

Dannah: And enjoy the abundant gift that God has given to us.

Erin: And bless the Lord for raspberries. I mean, just think about the goodness of God in a raspberry. There’s no flavor like it. It’s not a blueberry. It’s not a blackberry. It’s not a grape. It’s a raspberry.

You guys can’t see me, but I’m, like, jumping up and down as I’m talking about this. To be amazed at the goodness of God, that He’s so creative, that He puts so much flavor into that berry, and that He lets us eat it is such a good way to respond to food.

Dannah: Erin, I wonder if you could end our day praising the Lord and also, I think, for those of us, like me, who sometimes grumble when we open our homes up for the feast. We need to reset our hearts to do that with a grateful heart, with an I-get-to heart. Maybe just pray that today is the beginning of a new way we approach the table. Because, like Jesus, we get the opportunity to say, “Hey! Come on. Sit down. Let me feed you.”

Erin: Yes. Before I pray, I’ll just tell you that I came to Jesus through pizza. Somebody invited me to go out to pizza. And from there, I became part of a youth group. And from there, I gave my life to the Lord. So, there’s real power in it.

Dannah, there’s a prayer in the book that I actually think I got from you. It is, “Lord, I’ve set the table. I ask You to bring the feast.” It’s that idea that we do what we can do, and then we ask the Lord to do what only He can do. We could set the table, literally, and the Lord could bring such a feast into our hearts and homes. Let me pray that He would give us that vision.

Jesus, You are so good. You’ve given us so many good gifts. I can’t help but think back to the Garden. In the Garden it was full of trees. There were many different kinds of fruit. That was always Your plan that we would have abundance in the area of food, so help us to latch on to that.

And then practically, Lord, especially as women, You’ve given us such power at our kitchen tables. I pray for the women listening that they wouldn’t grumble, that they wouldn’t see it as an obligation or just one more thing, but as a tremendous opportunity to show who You are . . . starting with our own family and then going out from there to their neighbors, to the people they know who don’t know Jesus.

Lord, would You do something beautiful at the tables of the women listening? We’ve set the table. We ask You to bring the feast. We love You. It’s in Your name I pray, amen.

Nancy: Amen. I love that. “We’ve set the table. We ask You to bring the feast.” And praise God He does, and He will.

Erin Davis has been praying that all of us would keep the right perspective on the rhythms of life in this whole area of food. Her new book is called, Fasting and Feasting: 40 Devotions to Satisfy the Hungry Heart. In that book she points out that God’s Word celebrates food as a good gift while, at the same time, inviting us to surrender every area of our lives to the authority of Jesus, including what we put on our plates. Rather than experiencing the yo-yo of loving food and hating food, Erin challenges us to accept Scripture’s invitation into a different rhythm just as she mentioned today.

Incidentally, Erin goes into more detail on this topic next week on our podcast, The Deep Well. A new season with eight episodes is all about fasting and feasting, and it comes out on Tuesday. Be sure to check out the podcast, The Deep Well, at ReviveOurHearts.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

Erin’s new devotional by that title, Fasting and Feasting, is our gift to you as our way of saying “thank you” for your donation of any amount. Be sure to ask about it when you make your gift at ReviveOurHearts.com or call us at 1-800-569-5959.

Well, we’re still basking in the afterglow of last week’s True Woman ’22 conference. Even if you weren’t able to be there, tomorrow on Revive Our Hearts you’ll hear a sampling of what we experienced last week—anchoring our hearts in the solid truth that Heaven Rules. I hope you’ll be able to tune in for that tomorrow as we again seek the Lord, asking Him to revive our hearts.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is inviting you to the freedom of fasting, the fullness of feasting, and sweet fruitfulness in Christ.

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.