Is the Enemy Lying to You About Food?

Dannah Gresh: If you’re battling food fixation, Asheritah Ciuciu wants to encourage you—you don’t fight alone. 

Asheritah Ciuciu: Jesus is involving me in the victory day by day. As I know the truth and walk in the truth, He is faithful and kind to set me free one day at a time, one meal at a time, one bite at a time.

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of Surrender: The Heart God Controls, for May 11, 2026. I’m Dannah Gresh.

How much time do you spend thinking about food? 

Maybe you delight in family meals around the dinner table, creating healthy recipes, rightly nourishing your body—these are good things! But when that healthy delight turns into obsession, we can find ourselves in bondage to food. Maybe you’re there. If so, you’re not alone. 

Asheritah Ciuciu has struggled with food fixation and, at a recent True Woman conference, she shared honestly about that journey . . . and she pointed the way to freedom. Asheritah is a national speaker, host of the Prayers of REST podcast, and author of Full: Food, Jesus, and the Battle for Satisfaction. I’m excited for you to hear part 1 of her message today. 

Asheritah: Y’all are such a brave bunch to come to this session, because this is not the book I wanted to write. Who wants to publicly confess to the whole wide world that food is an issue? It wasn’t me.

And yet, God has a way sometimes of not letting go. He will chase us down with His love until we surrender to Him, and that is the very best place to be.

I just want to say thank you so much for being brave for coming here today. I hope that in the time that we have together you will find hope for those food challenges in your life. I hope that we will take some time to look at some of the lies that we believe about food, starting with food being the enemy, and see that God’s truth has the power to set us free.

When you know the truth and you walk in the truth, the truth will set you free.

I remember when I was a little girl, I was probably about five years old, I don’t know how many times I did this. I’m not sure how many times I was able to pull it off. My parents tell me that when I was a little girl, I would get a little fussy with dinner and say that I can’t eat any more, because I’m all full.

Then dessert would come around, and guess who suddenly found room for dessert. When my dad pressed me on this, apparently I would respond that there’s a special section of my stomach that’s just for dessert, and that’s why I still had room for dessert.

Wouldn’t you believe it, my own six-year-old tried this with me last week. I said, “You didn’t eat all of your dinner.”

She said, “Mom, I’m full.”

I said, “That’s too bad.”

Then ice cream came along, and she said, “I have room now.”

“Child, I wasn’t born yesterday. I know how this works.”

Over the years I’ve had a complicated relationship with food, and since you’re here, I imagine that you probably have as well.

When we look at the statistics, it’s truly sobering. Nearly three quarters of Americans are overweight or obese. About 6 percent of Americans are underweight, which is also a health challenge. Ninety-one percent of college age women are on a diet.

I don’t know about you, but I look back at my college pictures when I thought I was overweight . . . I see lots of nods. Ninety-one percent of our college age students are on a diet.

A June 2011 study revealed that between 20 to 57 percent of Americans have an eating behavior that is characteristic of a new eating disorder that’s called orthorexia. Orthorexia is defined as an obsessive preoccupation with healthy eating. It consumes all of your mental energy. It consumes all of your life, just thinking about “how can I make the next meal a healthy meal?”

Honestly, it doesn’t matter if you’re overweight, if underweight, if you’re on a diet or if you’re off a diet, it doesn’t matter if you’re eating healthy or you are finding comfort in that pint of ice cream—we all struggle with food.

I would say one of the first lies that the enemy tries to use to ensnare us is that we are the only one. I must be the only one who is struggling with this food fixation.

I want you to look around this room, because these are your sisters in battle. We are all in this together. But more than that, we are all under the rulership and the headship of Jesus Christ, our Lord and King. And because heaven rules, and because Jesus reigns, Jesus can set us free. Do you believe that? 

Scientists are affirming that our food issues are not just physical. Because we are created in God’s image, they’re spiritual, as well. We can try to solve this food fixation with a diet, and anyone who’s been on a diet will tell you it doesn’t work. Not long term.

You can try to fix that food fixation with positive thinking. And that, by itself, is not going to work.

You can try to identify the emotional triggers, and that might be helpful, but on their own, it’s not going to work.

You see, there’s also a spiritual component to our battle with food fixation. Until we address that God created us body, mind, spirit, until we tackle this food fixation from each angle together, until we bring it under the dominion of Jesus Christ, we will not experience the freedom that He’s come to give us.

You see, many of us have been hurt by food fixation. How ironic that the enemy of our souls, the one who Jesus says has come to steal, kill, and destroy, started in the Garden of Eden with lies and with food.

Have you ever thought of that? It was food that was the vehicle for the very first sin.

Let’s just get clear up front: food is not the enemy. Food is a good gift from a good Father, meant to turn our hearts to Him in worship.

God had given Adam and Eve all the garden, all the fruits, all the vegetables, everything that was delicious and delectable (I don’t know if kale was there yet), but food was a good gift, and it was given by the good Father, and it was meant to be received with worship and gratitude and to turn their hearts toward Him, because He is the Provider.

Food is a good gift. We have an enemy, and that enemy is not food. That enemy is out to steal and to kill and to destroy. How does he do this?

I think of those of us who have severe health issues and chronic illness because of food choices that we’ve made in the past.

I think of those of you in this room who, in the past six months, have had an appointment with your doctor, and he’s told you that you need to lose weight if you want to live to see your grandchildren.

I think of those of us who are on medications to stabilize issues with our health that have been caused by our food choices.

The enemy comes to steal and kill and destroy.

I think of strained relationships that are due to our lack of self-control. Not only do we lack self-control in our eating, but that bleeds over into our parenting, into our friendships, into our marriage. It might look different, but at its root, it’s still a lack of self-control.

The enemy has come to steal and kill and destroy.

He does this by causing us to doubt God’s goodness. When we’ve tried diet after diet, when we have committed ourselves to New Year’s resolution after New Year’s resolution, and year after year we’ve failed, we think that God doesn’t care anymore.

We doubt God’s goodness because the enemy has come to steal and kill and destroy.

And for some people in the church today, he will use a plethora of different sins. It might be greed. It might be lust. It might be pornography. It might be gossip. But I’ll tell you what, for a large group of the church today, Satan steals and kills and destroys through food fixation. Just because we like our Sunday potlucks doesn’t mean this isn’t an issue for us.

But I have good news for you today, because the verse doesn’t stop there. Jesus says that “the enemy has come to steal and kill and destroy, but I have come that you might have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10, paraphrased).

Have life, and have it to the full.

Do you know what that word "full" means in its original context? I’m not going to go all Greek and Hebrew on you here, but this one’s actually pretty interesting because it comes from the root word that is used for gluttony.

Imagine going to your favorite aunt’s house for Thanksgiving. Imagine the spread out before you. There is an abundance of good food. You’ve dieted all of last week just so you could come and have whatever you want for Thanksgiving dinner. You are looking forward to that meal. You are going to indulge in that meal. Your taste buds are going to sing “Hallelujah” because of that meal.

There is an abundance of food and you are going to enjoy it. That is the picture that Jesus wants us to have. He has come to give us life and give life to the full.

We do not serve a God of scarcity. We do not serve a God of diets. We do not serve a God who would have us measure and count every macro and calorie.

Listen to me, there might be a component of things that we need to do physically to get our bodies in a healthy place, but if you’re going to do that out of a place of deprivation, that is the enemy lying to your heart.

He has come to steal and kill and destroy. Jesus has come that we might have life abundantly, excessively, generously. Life to the full.

What does this look like? On the one hand we have Satan’s preferred method of doing battle on our souls, and that is through lies. Jesus says that he is the father of all lies, and when we believe lies, we are following him.

In the Garden of Eden, Satan used a lie to cause Eve to doubt God’s goodness, to doubt His generosity. Is God really holding out on me? Or does He have a spirit of generosity and abundance toward me?

We’re not going to go into all of these lies. We are going to look at three of them later in our session today, but just a few of them that I want you to be thinking about. 

The first one is: I deserve that brownie, or popcorn, or whatever your favorite thing is. I had a rough day. I deserve it.

Now hold it up. I want you to look around. Do you see how many of us struggle with this? The enemy would isolate you and tell you you are the only one. He would pile guilt and shame and condemnation on you. How dare you believe that?! But you’re not the only one.

How about: It’s just a bag of chips. It's no big deal. It’s not like I’m doing drugs or anything. Again, feel free to insert your favorite food. Might not be chips.

How about this one: But if I don’t eat that extra piece now, who knows when I’ll have another chance?!

Do you recognize the scarcity?

How about—this one trips me up all the time: This tastes so good. How can it be bad? You are my sisters. There’s not so many of you, but we’re foodies.

How about: I worked out hard today, so I can eat whatever I want.

There’s a whole bunch of other lies, but as you’ve been raising your hands, I hope one thing that you see is that Satan lacks creativity. He’s reusing the same scripts over and over and over again.

You’re not the only one who’s dealing with these lies. You’re not the only one who’s falling into these patterns. I want you to know that you are not alone, not just because of the other women in this room, but because of Jesus Christ.

If you belong to Jesus, He has placed His Spirit in your life, and He can be your guide, and your counselor, and the voice of truth. When you know the truth, and when you walk in the truth, the truth will set you free. Can I get an “Amen”?

There’s hope because heaven rules, because Jesus reigns, because Jesus let go of the glory of heaven and came to earth and took on human flesh. Do you know that Scripture says that He was tempted in every way, yet without sin?

Every struggle that you have ever faced, Jesus knows. Because He knows, He is our great High Priest, and He intercedes for us before the Father. Any time we cry out to Him, He is faithful and just and merciful and compassionate, and we can approach the throne of grace with boldness knowing that we will find mercy and help in time of need. You are not alone.

When you know the truth, and when you walk in the truth, the truth will set you free.

Go with me to another garden. We looked at the garden of Eden and Satan, and how he’s the father of lies. When we look at John chapter 14, the night before Jesus was betrayed, He looked at His disciples, and He said, “I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life.”

When He said, “I have come that you might have life and have it to the full, have it abundantly,” you know what He was talking about? He was talking about Himself. He is the life.

When we know the truth and walk in the truth, that truth will set us free. You know why? Because Jesus is the truth. When we know Jesus, and when we walk with Jesus, Jesus will set us free, because He is the only one who entered into death to break the chains and to set prisoners free.

A few years ago, I was especially discouraged after gaining about fifty pounds with my firstborn, with that pregnancy. That was the first time I looked at my college pictures and said, “Oh to be her again!”

It felt like no matter how hard I tried, I just could not shake free of this food fixation. I remember sitting with someone from my local church, an older woman who had become like a mentor to me. I was telling her about this.

I said, “I feel like I should have this figured out now. I’ve been dieting for two years.” I was a professional dieter at that point. “And I don’t know what else to do. I don’t know where else to turn.”

If I’ve ever felt a Bible verse apply to my life, in that season of my life, it was Paul’s word, “I know what to do, and yet, the bad thing I don’t want to do, that’s what I keep on doing! Woe is me!” (Rom. 7, paraphrased). 

Why won’t God do something about this? Notice the doubt creeping in my heart—the same doubt that Satan used: “Is God holding out on you? Is God really good? Does He really care? Does He really hear? Does He really see?”

Sitting in that coffee shop, my friend looked across the table at me, and she said, “Asheritah, you don’t have to struggle with this for the rest of your life. You see, Jesus can set you free.”

Ladies, I know we’ve been talking about this for the last twenty minutes, but for me, that was a lightbulb moment, because I’d never thought in my life that Jesus cared about what I eat. I didn’t think He cared about what the scales said.

I grew up as a missionary kid. I knew He cared about lost souls. I knew He cared about redeeming marriages and bringing prodigals home, but does He really care that my jeans are kind of tight?

Scripture tells us that the Good Shepherd goes out, and He seeks the lost. Our God is the God who can break strongholds. Because Jesus defeated sin and death at the cross, we have hope, and Jesus can set us free.

It would be my preference that that freedom would come in one big swoop. I would love to encounter that kind of a miracle in my life that we read about in the gospel stories where Jesus just touched them and miraculously healed them. But that has not been my experience.

My experience over the past six years since writing this book and sharing my story is that Jesus is involving me in the victory day by day. As I know the truth and walk in the truth, He is faithful and kind to set me free one day at a time, one meal at a time, one bite at a time.

I am not where I was ten years ago, and I’m not where I’ll be ten years from now. Praise God, He is not finished with me yet.

We know that God is faithful, and He who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. When you know the truth and walk in the truth, the truth will set you free. And that truth is Jesus.

Seventy-eight times in the gospel, seventy-eight times, Jesus says, “I tell you the truth.” And that is because He is truth personified. Jesus cannot lie because He defines reality.

Satan has no originality. He can only take God’s truth and twist it and pervert it and make it something it’s not in an attempt to ensnare us in addiction, to make us feel hopeless, to make us doubt God’s goodness. But when we come to Jesus, when we study the truth, when we cling to His promises, we know the truth, we walk in the truth, and that truth will set us free.

Dannah: Amen, that’s a promise. The truth will set us free. For twenty-five years now, Revive Our Hearts has been sharing the truth with women around the world. One of our listeners wrote in to tell us how Nancy’s teaching helped her find freedom in Christ. She writes:

I battled with depression for ten years. It was deep and dark, and I was trapped. I didn’t believe I would ever find a way out. I prayed God would free me. I went to four Christian counselors and three doctors, took two different medications, and read devotionals specific to depression, but nothing seemed to help.

After listening to Nancy, God opened my eyes to a lie I had started believing at twelve years old—that God didn’t want me to be happy, and that every time life was okay, He would snatch my gladness away and make me sad again.

God used Nancy’s teaching to fill my heart with the truth that God is good and loving, even when He allows suffering. I now tell my story to anyone who will listen, because for almost a year now, I have been free from the cage of depression.

What an encouraging testimony! This listener told us that, in light of this life transformation, the Lord has prompted her to become a Revive Partner. This means she’s committed to give a monthly gift to support this ministry. She said, “Money is tight, but I know I can trust God with what is already His.” We’re so grateful to have her as a member of the partner family! And we rejoice with her at the liberating work God has done! 

Now, speaking of Revive Partners, we’ve got a special online appreciation event coming up—just for you! That will take place in June, so be watching your emails. We’re excited to see you there. 

In the meantime, would you prayerfully consider giving above and beyond your monthly gift to support us in the month of May? We’re navigating a financial shortfall, and we do have some reserves we can dip into, but we’d rather spend that money on translation into more languages. Your gift goes straight toward helping more women across the globe experience the freedom in Christ we’ve been talking about today.

Now, if you’re not a Revive Partner, maybe you’re feeling a little left out. But fret not! We would love for you to join the partner family! You can visit ReviveOurHearts.com/partner to learn more about what’s involved and discover the perks you’ll receive once you join.

And even if you don’t become a Revive Partner, you can still give a one-time gift. Visit ReviveOurHearts.com to do that, or call us at 1-800-569-5959. 

When you donate, we’ll send you Called to Thrive—a new booklet from Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth—as our thanks. If you’re outside the United States and Canada, we can’t mail you a physical copy, but we do have a digital download available for you. You’ll find that on our website when you go to give. This booklet is pretty much your freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ handbook. It’s not a long read, but it’s packed with rich content that reflects the heart of this ministry. Again, we’ll make sure you get that when you give at ReviveOurHearts.com, or call us at 1-800-569-5959. 

Tomorrow, we’re listening to part two of Asheritah’s message on freedom from food fixation. She’s going to help you get super practical, and she’s gonna open God’s Word with you, as well. I think you’re going to be encouraged. Please be back for Revive Our Hearts.

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

All Scripture taken from the NIV unless otherwise noted. 

 

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