Do you have a weak appetite for God or are you hungry? To be fully satisfied in life, you have to first hunger and thirst for God and not for worldly things. 

show notes:

In this episode, Heidi shares how she shifted from hungering for small worldly things to hunger only for God, plus how you can find satisfaction by hungering for God. You have to allow God to awaken your hunger for Him through prayer, fasting, His Word, and worship. 

Listen in to learn how to stop stuffing your soul with small worldly things and allow God to do great things through you. 

“In order to be satisfied in God, we must first hunger and thirst for Him.” ~Heidi Bramm

Top Takeaways:

• How you become satisfied by craving God or unsatisfied by craving anything else other than Him. 
• How to ask for God’s help to center your prayers on pleasing Him and submit every area of your life to Him. 
• Stop stuffing your soul with small worldly things that you leave no room for the great things God wants to do through you. 

What you will learn:

• [6:25] Matthew 5:6. How to first hunger and thirst for God so you can be satisfied. 
• [8:42] Heidi shares some of the things she was craving, how she prayed for God to awaken her hunger for Him, and shifted her life. 
• [15:00] A list of the small worldly things Heidi hungered for instead of turning to God. 

Relevant Links:

• Full: Food, Jesus, and the Battle for Satisfaction by Asheritah Ciuciu
• Biblical Weight Loss Facebook group:  facebook.com/groups/biblicalweightlossblueprint/
• Register for the Food Freedom Workshop, Nov 28 at 7:30pm CST: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_pzoN6QIpSsyDiNy6sJQLdA

Detailed Transcript:

Hey, beloved Welcome back to the show. In today’s episode, we are covering chapter four in the Full book by Ashrita Ciuciu, Food, Jesus, And The Battle For Satisfaction. I’m going to share key highlights from this chapter on stirring up a holy hunger for the Lord instead of nibbling at the table of the world. I will be sharing my personal takeaways from when I went through this book in 2019. This powerful book changed my life so much that I chose it for the 12-week curriculum for my breakthrough program the Biblical Weight Loss Blueprint to truly give you weapons for weight loss that work for lasting freedom, to help renew your mind, and to make you wise to the enemy’s tactics so you can armor up and stand against his schemes, and to help you trade guilt for grace in your relationship with food. 

“I am on a mission to bring a whole new level of health and wellness to your home and help women of faith, heal their relationship with food, restore their identity in Christ and lose toxic weight for good.”

My story and my struggles with emotional eating and weight gain started when I was about nine years old and when my parents separated. I share about my journey of gaining and losing the same 40 to 60 pounds in Episode 52. This healing process and this journey toward freedom with food is not an overnight gig. Some pieces take years to heal. And then some after years of struggle are healed and delivered in an instant. Like my come to Jesus moment in the bathtub with alcohol, which I believe I’m sharing on the next episode. 

The power of fasting to break strongholds, the role in our healing plays in finding food freedom, it’s all come together in an incredible three cord strand approach to weight loss and food freedom that I want to share with you. So coming the end of the month on November 28, I am having a Food Freedom Workshop and you’re invited. I’m so excited! 

We’re going to spend an hour together unpacking what it really takes to break free from bondage is to food and struggles with weight without exercise and even if you’ve struggled your entire life. For many of us, food has become an increasingly complex issue that causes us to feel guilty or overwhelmed or even hopeless. If you feel defeated by your lack of self-control or overwhelmed by your way and thoughts and longings for food, then come join us in the Biblical Weight Loss Blueprint Facebook group on Sunday, November 28. At 7:30 pm Central time, we’re going to dig into Scripture and reveal the path to freedom. You guys, I have been working on the workshop outline this whole weekend and it has me fired up! Can you tell? 

This workshop will give you a glimpse into the food freedom curriculum that we use in my blueprint, which is my 12-week signature program that’s launching in January. This is a faith-based format and it’s comprehensive. It’s holistic in nature. We are body, spirit and soul, and so this program addresses all three. We have a guide to fast and detox for the physical weight loss portion, a biblically-based food freedom curriculum for the spiritual piece, and finally, personal inner healing sessions for the heart and soul work that’s so crucial for lasting freedom. A strand of three cords is not easily broken, and this program has it all. 

Weight is just a symptom. It’s not about the weight, and yet it’s not NOT about the weight. And it’s so much more than the weight because we know that the weight is in the way so to speak right from us truly living our lives to the full. Losing the weight is really just the icing on the cake in this program since, yes, you will be losing between 10 to 15% of your body weight, which for most people is about 20 to 25 pounds. But more importantly, you will discover the joy of living free from food fixation and experiencing a deeper satisfaction in Christ. You will find healing from the inside out and that you no longer need to carry this extra weight around because you found true healing. And you will finally feel comfortable and confident in your own skin and be able to step into the fullness of what God has for you. 

So come join me for this totally free Food Freedom Workshop that I’m doing for you! This is a spiritual battle y’all and we need to overcome the lies with truth. And we’ll even have a special guest join us to share her experiences from the 12-week program so you can hear firsthand her results and her takeaways. And workshop attendees will get first dibs on applying for the beta version of this program that launches in January. 

Beloved if you are ashamed to work out in front of others…

If you can’t stop obsessing about food or can’t stop binge drinking or binge eating…

Or if you avoid the mirror because of what you see in the reflection…

And you’re stuck in this cycle of shame and self-hatred with your body or are overcome by fear and anxiety of social situations because you feel like everybody is judging you…

And you know that your soul is yearning to be set free from the bondage of food fixation and isolation and loneliness that comes with this… 

Please come join us in the Biblical Weight Loss Blueprint Facebook group for the upcoming Food Freedom Workshop. Again, it’s November 28 at 7:30 pm Central time, and I can’t wait to see you in there. 

All righty, I know a biblical approach is needed. Because when we aren’t in alignment with who God says we are, we are susceptible to the enemy’s lies. So it’s either a god shaping our minds or the world is and I want to keep planting seeds that will open your heart to the idea that the Lord wants to fight this battle for you. And victory is found in Jesus. So today we’re talking about having a hunger for God. Before we get into how to serve up a holy hunger for the Lord, instead of nibbling at the table of the world. I want to ask you, 

“Do you have a weak appetite for the Lord? Or are you hungry?” 

Hmm, it’s funny how in the natural realm, we get hungry first, and then we eat. But in the spiritual, we eat first, and then we get hungry. We get hungrier right? Once we taste and see that the Lord is good, we can’t help but want more. And that is who God chooses to fill up. Those that are seeking Him. Matthew 5:6 says, “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” 

In order to be satisfied in God, we must first hunger and thirst for him. So if we’re craving, or have a hunger or thirst for anything else besides Him, we will never truly be satisfied. So I had to write down some things that I was craving, instead of God, oh goodness, I’m going to share those in a bit. But I want to share with you that in that verse, right. He’s saying that if we’re craving anything else, we will never really experience true satisfaction because we were made to crave God. We were never truly meant to be satisfied if we’re craving something other than Him. 

And so in the Greek, the word satisfied actually means to gorge. And so Jesus is using this exact word gorge to help us picture this immense satisfaction that is ours in God when we hunger and thirst for him, instead of food that isn’t going to satisfy. God created us to know Him, to enjoy Him, and to be loved by Him. And when we spend time with Him, right in his presence, He changes us and He creates in us a desire to grow even closer to Him. 

Throughout the Bible, God invites us to bring our requests to Him even expecting us to approach him boldly in His throne room, because Jesus speaks on our behalf. So we are confident that we will receive whatever we ask according to His will, because God says so. And then I realized as I was reading through this chapter, I’m like, “Oh, but I have to ask Him for help!” Oh my goodness, so much pride came crumbling down after this chapter. So what was I craving? I made a list. 

I put a thin body, a debt-free life, a self-running business, a successful team, recognition in my business, kind of like this notice me attitude, right? Like-kind of this following I wanted to create on social, this image of a perfect family, a perfect house, a perfect routine, a perfect diet, people to come to me when they needed help. I had almost like this savior complex of “look at what I know, come to me, I can help you.” This instant gratification was what I was craving and results without effort, this image of having it all together and that I can do this on my own. I could be self-sufficient, which is so prideful. But I have this prayer that I wrote down like “Lord, if I’m completely honest, I’ve always had to learn to do things on my own. And I take pride in my ability to be successful without others’ help, including you.”

Yikes. And I was like, “I don’t want to do this life on my own anymore. I need you.” It was almost like that what she wrote in that book, and that part of that chapter was it gave me permission, reading that verse to be like, “Oh, I actually have permission to go boldly before my father and ask for help.” He is expecting me to ask for help. He’s expecting me to need him. This is amazing, like, completely mind blown. I want to hunger and thirst for you and your way of doing life here on Earth. So change my cravings. Ooh, good one, change my cravings from selfish pride, laziness, instant gratification, perfectionism, approval, and attention from others, burden of saving others to you and your fullness of all needs met through you, satisfaction of my desires through you. 

I put “take me deeper Lord, shake me from this apathy and awaken my hunger, to live only for you.” My ultimate goal is personal intimacy with the Lord. And God invites me to bring my requests to him, right even expecting me to approach Him in His throne room with boldness, and being confident that I will receive whatever I asked for, according to His will. But I have to ask, I have to go to him. And I have to ask for help. 

And by prayer, like prayers are approached to God and we can come boldly knowing that Jesus is there interceding on our behalf, He is king, but also friend, and counselor. And so help him helping me center my prayers on pleasing the Lord helping me to submit every area of my life to Him. It kind of brought up some fears. And fears around my business actually notice a theme here with my business. And like I’m finding my identity in my business as I was going through this in 2019. Oh, he saw me show me so many good things. So when I started to examine my spiritual appetite for God, and honestly assess myself and ask the spirit to shine his light in my heart, because we can be so easily deceived, right, we can deceive ourselves in thinking that we’re better off than we really are. 

But like David prayed, “Search me God, know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts, see if there’s anything offensive in me and lead me to the everlasting way.” And so I wrote down, I had this fear of how my business would run. What if I don’t continue to show up on social and the “algorithm god” affects my revenue? What if I step away? So I was just asking him to search my heart and to show me another way to do business that’s honoring to him that’s based on heart motives, helping others, lifting others, relationship building. And he gave me an outline of this. And really, this is where it started to shift in my network marketing business from it being the main thing. I don’t know if I’ve shared this on the podcast before, but I’ve shared it on guest episodes, that were in my network marketing business, my business did become my identity. 

And it was this moment in 2019 reading this, I was like, “oh, goodness, I am making this the main thing in my life when really, it’s just a branch.” And so part of what he showed me, what Holy Spirit showed me, is to focus on personal one on ones instead of larger events. So that was more intimate, it was really focused on the person versus the outcome of the event, and having a more organized past so that I could be more efficient in my business and have more time for other things, and focusing on just the income-producing activities. 

And really, what can I do in 10 hours a week? I was spending way too much time on it, almost just managing it, versus being productive in it. And so I prayed for a deeper relationship with God and just the courage to share the Good News and lead others to Christ, I realized that he was putting these people in my life and before me in my business so that I could shine and show them the Lord through me right to be that vessel. And so I prayed for courage and strength to submit my life to Him in all ways to serve only him to have a greater hunger for his presence or release from anything that distracted me from him, and just thanking him for a quick answer, right thanking him for satisfying my needs. And as if with the richest foods. 

So God really used prayer and fasting and his word, and worship. I have a whole Spotify playlist. I think it’s like 11 hours of worship music, that’s one of the main ways that he stirs up my hunger. And if those don’t speak to you and your fear like I don’t even know how to have a hunger for God, then you have to ask, you have to ask him to stir up your appetite or him. So he showed me that by nibbling on all these things of the world that my soul was so stuffed with these small things that there was no room for the great things that he wanted to do through me that God didn’t create me for that. 

And I made another list. Don’t you love it? So these were the things of the world that I was nibbling on? that were keeping me full. And keeping me from the great things that God had for me and a lot of it revolved around my business. I had to be honest, in that I hungered for a more God-centered business. But that’s not what was happening. I had this fear of not being paid attention to or feeling unimportant. I had this fear of walking away from the way I built my business with Facebook and Facebook groups and not showing up. So fear of man judging that maybe I was taking a step back visibly, and this desire that my business was more important to me than spending time with God like I knew my business was a gift from God. 

And I wanted to steward it well, but I didn’t want to be complacent or lazy or, you know, become entitled or expected to have an increase without any effort. And so I wrote down, I said, “What if I’d rather get my validation and satisfaction from creating stuff for my business or running challenges or responding to people, feeling needed, responding to people’s requests, through responding to post checking comments, or waiting for people to ask for my help.” And so I was too preoccupied with my business and my growth and mastery in it or perfecting it. And I needed to step back and look at how I was filling myself up with these worldly things and ask God to grow a desire in my heart for him. 

And so I wrote down, pausing to pray in difficult situations, and being deliberate in that way, after a long day, rewarding myself with time in God’s presence. When circumstances were difficult or overwhelming, where I was comparing myself to others or things got confusing, that I would seek comfort in God’s word. These are all ways that we can stir our hunger for the Lord, these are all ways that we can go to Him and seek Him and have Him fill us up and satisfy us, giving God the first fruit of my time in the morning before business as usual. So going to God first before going to my business. And then in moments of silence with God, or 10 to 15-minute worship breaks. And the way I was running my business at the time, it was a hindrance to the closest walk possible with the Lord, because I was always putting my business first. And so I said, Lord, show me who I can partner within my business to run it according to your will and your design. 

And instead of it becoming this toiling, self-centering, competing thing, it became this blessing thing that I get to focus on the people, and showing up in this posture of, here’s what the Lord looks like, feels like, by me just showing up and having him fill me first I can pour out from that. So that was something that I, you know, recognize myself as kind of rocky soil, right, I hear and see and receive with joy. But since I don’t have deep roots, I believed, you know certain things for a while, and then fell away when faced with, you know, temptations in my business, or shiny object syndrome, or whatever. And I also saw a little bit of thorns and other cares or preoccupations crowding out and hindering me from getting closer to God. 

In some areas of my life, I did have good soil, I realized that as well. But I had a lot of these preoccupations with my business with worries, you know, financial worries, of course, there was debt worries, but in business and then losing weight, obviously, this is why I was going through it, my body image according to other people’s perceptions of me, comparing myself with others, and physically or how they were doing their business, and how to design things in my life in a way that fuels me, but doesn’t take the place of God. So it was really cool how turning to food for comfort, or boredom, or procrastination did come up a little bit in this chapter, but a lot of it was revealed around my business, that he gifted me and He gave me some steps I could take to bring it back into a place of honoring him to create margin in my business so I can have more time available for him.

Another interesting thing that I was able to track and make another list for things that were filling me up and just kind of taking away from the time I could be spending with the Lord these rocks, right that were leaving no room for the great things because they were taking up space. Were courses at different courses and things and solutions. I thought for my business that they were going to give me where I wanted to go and I’m all about trial and error. I’m all about investing in yourself. Don’t get me wrong here but Holy Spirit revealed that I would start things and not finish them or I would pay for things thinking that I paid for it, so it’s going to work without really putting a serious foot forward to invest all I had into that solution and finish. 

And I’m not saying I did this with every course. But there were some where I started them, and I was like, “oh my goodness, I invested a lot of money in courses this year.” And I kind of fell for empty promises in hopes of this time, it will be different. And I didn’t. It wasn’t the course necessarily. It was me not showing up. And so Holy Spirit revealed that I can start by finishing the things that I invested in or purchase that there’s almost like this finishers anointing on things. And instead of getting distracted, I can finish what I’ve already invested and refrain from new purchases until I get a clear yes, that it’s something that I need for my business.

So resisting the temptation to purchase more curriculums or courses that are just stuffing the moments in my life that I could be spending with the Lord instead. And they’re not leaving room for the great. 

One thing that stood out to me in this week’s reading is that I can do nothing, like literally nothing. Maybe I can brush my teeth without the Lord, but I can’t do my business, my health, my family, my relationships, my scheduling, nothing apart from Christ. And the truth that I learned this week during Chapter four is that he wants us to bring our needs to him. He wants us to bring our requests to him. He even says we should approach him boldly and He expects us to. So good. 

Alright, beloved, that’s all I have for today. Again, I want to make sure you join us in the Biblical Weight Loss Blueprint Facebook group for our upcoming workshop, the end of November. All are invited and it’s open to everyone. I am so darn excited. I hope to see you in there. 

In the meantime, I pray that you prosper in your health, just as your soul prospers, that the Holy Spirit stirs up a spiritual hunger like you’ve never experienced before. That he helps you to be released from anything that hinders intimacy with God that he helps you to ask for what you need and to anticipate your needs before you even ask that he takes you deeper because at the end of the day, he is all that matters. And I’m asking this in Jesus name, amen.

Hey, beloved, real quick before you go. If you found value in today’s podcast and you learned something new, head over to iTunes for covered beloved and leave a five star review. Hit subscribe while you’re there. And of course, if you have friends who would benefit from today’s episode, be sure to share. Until next time, remember God’s got you covered.