If God Asks Me to Refuse a Donut (Part One): Trust vs. Control

The WeightWatchers Plan is intended to encourage healthy food choices. You check the points value of a particular food, you check how many points you have available, and then you choose whether or not to eat it. To be successful, you must control every bite that enters your mouth. If you have a party or special event, or if you are going to a restaurant, you plan out in advance what you will eat. If suitable food choices are not available, you bring your own food with you.

WeightWatchers publicizes many “success stories” where members describe how the Plan has helped them. A key success factor appears to be planning and control. Successful members don’t let friends or family tempt them with goodies outside their points values. Nonetheless, if that donut is really important to them, they plan ahead, save up their points, and exercise their choice to eat it. To stay on track, some members track their food before they eat it, following the Plan like a script.

Dare we return to Brother Yun, starving, in prison? God forbid I trivialize Brother Yun’s experience. At the same time, the contrast between the WeightWatchers Plan and the Pastor’s Prison Plan is instructive. The Pastor’s Prison Plan strips away any illusion of choice. You eat what you are given, because the only alternative is starvation. And then, under these extreme circumstances, God takes away what little control you might think you have. God asks you to refuse the mantou.

If you have been trained under the WeightWatchers Plan, how will you respond to God’s request under the Pastor’s Prison Plan?

I think the starting point is to recognize, in all circumstances, God is the one in control. We may think we are in control, or we may think the prison guards are in control. But they are not. Scripture tells us,

“The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time.
You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.” (Psalm 145:15-16).

And again, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 6:26).

I think we need to recognize that God is the provider of all things, including food. What we eat or drink -- or whether we eat or drink -- is ultimately God’s choice, not ours. Thankfully, God is good, and he works in all things for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28).

So here is the question that has been rattling around in my head. What if, instead of trying to pre-plan and micromanage our diet, we simply trusted in God’s provision? What if we simply asked the Father, “Give us today our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11), and then accepted it from his hand?

What if we looked that donut in the eye and prayed, God, is this your provision for me today?

More to come.