SPEAKER_02: 0:01

Hi, and welcome to our podcast, Revelation Within on the Go. I'm Heidi Files by Epperson, one of your co-hosts, and the owner and lead coach of the RevelationWithin.org Ministry.

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And I'm Christina Butley, your other host, also a Revelation Within coach, and Hi partner in all things Revelation Within. And we are so happy to invite you to join us for this episode of Revelation Within.

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It's a new year. Oh my goodness. I mean, it's amazing how fast time goes. If you are like many women of faith that we walk alongside, 2026 may have started for you with high hopes. And in spite of what we said a few weeks ago about resolutions, maybe you started with resolutions too. But also, maybe you're feeling already like you failed. I hope not. But from what I know, it's likely somebody listening feels that way.

SPEAKER_00: 1:21

So yes, yes. And you know what? We want to speak directly into that today. Because if you're tired, if you're weary, if you are struggling from striving, if you're already tempted to toss your goals aside, which I mean, I know this speaking about myself for so many years in the new year. If you're feeling that way, this episode is for you. We're going to be talking about real hope, the kind that we can stand on, the rock solid kind that doesn't shift or change or shake. And yes, it's the kind of hope that can touch even our struggles with food, eating, and body image too. Gasp. Really? Yep. I know it's a big order. It's a really big order, especially at the beginning of the year. It's this is like the best time to talk about this.

SPEAKER_02: 2:21

Yeah, that's true. So how about let's just start with a question? Is relating to food and eating peacefully really possible? Is it really possible?

SPEAKER_00: 2:35

I don't know. Yes, I do know. Yeah, no, we we do know now, but years ago we didn't know, did we, Katie? Years ago, we were like, are you kidding me? I really don't think it's possible. Uh, it's possible to like, you know, clench my teeth and, you know, what's the oh, white knuckle it, you know, it's I've got my fists like really tight when I say that. It's it's possible to do things differently for a short time, but then hope fades after that.

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At least it did for me for many, many years. Me too.

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So hope is a word we throw around a lot, especially in the holiday season, right? Hope, hope, hope, hope, hope. But biblical hope is not wishful thinking. Hallelujah. Yeah, I am so grateful for that. Romans 5 tells us hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Okay, so that means our hope isn't in willpower, wishful thinking, pulling up your own bootstraps. It's not. It is in God's presence poured in, not just poured in, but overflowing.

SPEAKER_02: 4:07

Yes, that's huge too. You know, because if our hope is in our own ability to finally get it together, you know, I've I've got to do this in 2026. Yeah, nearing the D-Day or something. I don't know. I've known people who say, like, I'm gonna turn this age in and I want to do it by then. Yeah, anyway. Yeah, but if if your hope is in your own ability, you know what? You're probably already feeling discouraged. I hate to say that, but yeah, you know, join the human race.

SPEAKER_00: 4:38

Right, join the human race. True, it's so true.

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Yeah, but on the other hand, if your hope is in the one who knows you, who knows you intimately, who walks with you, who speaks peace to your chaos, then there's always a reason to keep going because he wastes nothing.

SPEAKER_00: 5:03

I love that. That does sound really hopeful, Heidi. I'm so glad you said that. Um, okay, so this is like a totally different kind of hope that we're talking about. This is a special God hope type hope. Um, it helps us face even the areas we feel really defeated in, those areas where it's like, oh, nothing is gonna touch this. This is just something I've been dealing with forever. Like food or our body image. This touches that without falling into despair. This kind of hope says, you're not done, you're being formed.

SPEAKER_02: 5:48

Well, this brings us to something that might surprise us, you know, really. And and you listener might be surprised as well. What if the very struggle that we want to be free of so much is the very place where God wants to meet us the most deeply, the most profoundly, with the most outpouring of a sense of his presence, power, and love?

SPEAKER_00: 6:12

Whoa. Whoa, yeah. I mean, on the one hand, that feels really, really good. On the other hand, it's like, what's he gonna ask of me? And what if I can't do it? What if I can't do it? But really, if it's all about him, yeah, then I can do it. Okay, so yes, Romans 5, just before that verse on hope, says this. We also glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character hope. I've always struggled with this verse, Heidi. Because sometimes things are really hard to deal with in this life.

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But it's a promise. It is a promise. It is a promise. Even if we don't feel the reality of it, I am so grateful that what I feel at any given point in time does not define what is true. And so, even if all I'm feeling is the suffering part of that verse, um, I can know that the rest of the verse is every bit as true as the reality of my suffering. That there's perseverance, character, and hope. We don't usually think of our food struggles as something God's gonna use for our good and his glory, but he can and he does. So, Christina, could you share with us about how God has used your struggle with, you know, this was a lifelong struggle for you. Yeah. But where are you at now with your intimacy with God? I mean, if you had not had the struggle with food eating and body image that you did, do you think you would be where you are today? Tell us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_00: 8:02

Yeah, no way. Absolutely no, no, not even close. So that does speak to what you said. Sometimes the struggle, God meeting us in that struggle is the most powerful way we can meet God when we are really at a place of I'm at the end of myself. I feel like I'm done, I'm ready to just give up. So, I mean, I've been struggling with food, body image, the whole deal since I was like 13, 14 years old. And then many decades, you know, after that, into my teens, into my 20s, my 30s. Um, it wasn't till the middle of my 40s that I really um began to give this over to the Lord and look at it in a completely different way. And I was still uncertain at that point, Heidi, when I started coaching with you, um, I was, I think I was 45 actually. And I was in a very desperate, very hopeless place. My hope was in the world. My hope was in plans, you know, just put me on a plan, an exercise plan, a nutrition plan, a diet plan, some kind of plan. And those never lasted for very long, really. Some just a few days, some a few weeks, not really more than that. But the real struggle for me was inside. I was struggling in my heart, in my mind, with my thoughts, with what I believed about myself, about God, about all kinds of things, about food. I was really, really in a bad place. And I was at the time loving my life, you know. I mean, I loved having my kids and my job. I was teaching in the school down the street, my husband, wonderful husband. I mean, I was so blessed. But on the inside, I was tortured every day, all the time. And I was drawn to food constantly, constantly. So, yeah, okay. So I'm gonna have a birthday next week, and I'm gonna turn 57, um, which is feels really old to me. But anyway, I'm just like, whoa. But anyway, that's coming. And so, like you said, with birthdays, sometimes we do kind of some reflection and we kind of look back and it's like, okay, well, where am I at? And really the most important question is where am I at with God right now? And over these years of learning how to renew my mind, learning how to replace all those lies with truth. I mean, lots and lots of mind renewal over the last years, becoming a revelation within coach with Heidi, working with her pretty much every single day, teaching with her, coaching one-on-one. Wow. I mean, it has been an incredible journey. And God has drawn me in through my hopelessness, through my frustration, through my need for him. And it's it's been amazing. I'm so grateful. I mean, we have our ups and downs, the Lord and I. We do, we have our ups and downs, just like everybody. There's times when yeah, I mean, that's that he gets it, but I have never known him at a deeper level than now. It's just been awesome. I'm so grateful. It's been worth it to go through this journey with him and to continue. Yeah, I used to, I used to be afraid of the journey. I used to think it was gonna be all about my stumbles and failures, and it would be meaningless, and I would just have to start over again 54,000 times. But that's not how the journey with the Lord is. The journey with the Lord is full of hope and transformation and freedom and joy and peace, not perfection. Not perfection at all. It's it's about looking and learning, it's about constantly walking with him and having him teach me. It's wow. And then, of course, surrender, which, you know, is is hard, but it's so good. So, so good. Surrendering my heart to him again and again. So I wouldn't trade it. I mean, I God could have chosen anything for me to be one of those lifelong challenges, you know, and I'm grateful now that it's this one. Because I get to do it with him, I get to do it with you, Heidi. I get to do it with our amazing community at Revelation Within. And I I wouldn't, I wouldn't trade it. I wouldn't trade it. So every time that we're tempted to numb with food, every time we hear that inner critic say, You blew it again. Come on, get it together. Every time we see a picture of ourselves, a well-meaning friend posted on Facebook and secretly scream, yikes inside. Okay, these are moments that can become invitations from the Lord. Invitations.

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And they aren't invitations, of course, to beat ourselves up, but to turn to him instead and ask, Jesus, what do you say here? What do you want me to know about you, about me, right here, Lord? That's a beautiful thing to do, to turn to him in those moments.

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It is.

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So maybe you have made some resolutions this year in spite of our best efforts to dissuade you. And maybe now you do feel like you've blown it. Maybe you ate emotionally, you might have skipped the exercise that you were gonna be so diligent about doing every day. Maybe you gave into something that you swore you wouldn't. Each of those could be invitations.

SPEAKER_00: 14:14

Okay, so first of all, welcome to being human. Come on in, join the club. Yeah, yeah. But we're in war. Yeah, we're we're all in it together. But even more importantly, welcome to grace.

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I love Psalm 103, verse 14, tells us that he knows how we are formed. He remembers that we are dust. Yeah, that's who we are. God is not shocked by our slip, slides, stumbles, falls, failures, etc. He does not roll his eyes and he doesn't pull away in disappointment or to punish us with silence. That is not our God. He says, Are you ready for my help?

SPEAKER_00: 16:14

Oh, I love that. I love, I love that because for so many years I thought God was disappointed in me and impatient and like he was struggling with my struggling. That's what I thought. But that's not who the God of the Bible is. The God of the Bible actually draws near when we struggle. I mean, he's already there, but imagine him, you know, putting his arms around us, and it's like he's right there, he's closer than close, and he invites us to do the same, to draw close to him. So what if right now, what if right now, right this very moment, what if you gave yourself permission to lay down that punishing resolution, not because you're giving up, but because you're choosing a better way, you're choosing life, you're choosing hope. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

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And what if instead of trying to fix yourself, you asked Jesus, would you meet me in this moment? Would you show me how to experience peace with food, with eating, with my body? Lord, show me.

SPEAKER_00: 17:34

Wow, wow, wow. Okay, so that's the invitation, not perfection, but presence, God's presence, and us being present with Him.

SPEAKER_02: 17:48

In 19, this is story time, by the way. Okay, story time. I love story time. I love story time. Go for it. In 1996, after my two babies were born, I joined Weight Watchers. Shh, don't tell anybody. But I joined it in November of that year, and within a year I had lost a hundred pounds. Oh my gosh. I was fitter than I ever had been in my life. I had a ride.

SPEAKER_00: 18:26

I'm seeing it. And at that time, I would have been very envious of that cape.

SPEAKER_02: 18:34

Yeah, well, I get it, I get it. A lot of people were, but something that I carried with me as I came out of that year that I didn't count on at all. And it emerged from that year of food focus. I mean, really, dieting that way was just the flip side of the same coin. I had been obsessed with food and gained a ton of weight. I then during that year was obsessed with food and restricted what I ate and lost weight. I fixated on food and eating, and I exercised like a maniac. One of my family members referred to that as my bulimic period. No, I didn't grow up, but I exercised it off madly. And here's the thing at the end of that year, I may have been fit, I may have felt good about how I looked, prideful actually, but I was filled to overflowing, not with the sense of God has been so good to me. It's awesome. I mean, and he had been, but I was filled, overflowing with fear. Oh, fear.

SPEAKER_00: 19:40

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02: 19:41

Yes, fear. I was not at peace with food and eating and my body at all. In fact, I may have been a certain, you know, a lot smaller physically, but it was like I had a ball and chain of weight that weighed half a ton that I was now carrying around, and it was attached to my heart and my mind. I was anything but free. I was anything but free. So physically, you could look on me and say, wow, she did it. But inwardly, I was tormented worse than ever. All I could think about was, what if I don't exercise? What if I overeat? What if I this? What if I that? And it scared me to death. It was oh wow. Yeah. So I am glad I am where I am today. Yes. Let's kind of talk about what peaceful eating really looks like because what I experienced in 1996 was not it. It was not it. It was it was like, you know, we could tie me to a chair and not give me any food, and I would lose weight. That's not the goal.

SPEAKER_00: 20:51

It's not the goal. That's not hope. That's not peace, that's not freedom. No, it doesn't line up with God's character at all.

SPEAKER_02: 20:59

No, no. So what does peaceful eating actually look like? What would it be like? What is it like to be? Be at peace with food and eating in my body, you know, because really this isn't about eating only from a list that is good foods and rejecting the foods and not eating them that are on the bad food list. That's not peace. That's we can do that, and many of us have it. Yeah, but that's not peace. So, what does peaceful eating actually look like?

SPEAKER_00: 21:31

Well, peaceful eating is about partnership, relationship with God. It's asking the Holy Spirit to guide us into gentle awareness of our hunger, our emotions, our fullness. It's laying down shame. Yes, yes, that's laying down shame. That's probably the biggest thing, really. That should be the first thing. It's returning to food as the gift God intended it to be.

SPEAKER_02: 22:02

Yay! That's huge for me, you know, to think of food not as put on this planet to torment me. Exactly. To be a good gift that God has given to us. I'm so grateful that I can see that now. I didn't or Romans 8:1, of course, tells us that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. And that includes around our food and eating and all of that, whether we eat or don't eat. There's no condemnation for us, which is a beautiful place to be and a very unfamiliar place for many.

SPEAKER_00: 22:36

Yeah, definitely. We teach something here at Revelation Within called the five intentions of spirit-led eating. They're not rules, they're not restrictions, they're not draining, they're not impossible, they're gentle practices that will bring hope and peace, all the good stuff from the Lord. So it starts out with a paragraph of truth that I'm gonna go ahead and read. My body is a gift from God to me and is fearfully and wonderfully made in God's image and by his careful and loving design. I am his beautiful masterpiece, his poetry in motion, one of a kind. I look to the Holy Spirit for his wisdom and loving leadership. Therefore, I will honor my God-given body with these intentions. Okay.

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Number one, I will busy myself as the spirit leads until I prayerfully sense a physical hunger signal.

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Number two, I will invite the Spirit of God into my meal with a heart of gratitude and praise.

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Number three, I will choose food in a just right-sized portion that delights my taste buds and causes my body to feel energized and strong.

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I will create a peaceful eating experience by being present with the food and reducing distractions.

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And number five, I will stop eating before my stomach is full at the peaceful place of just enough. You know, when we practice these things with the Holy Spirit, our meals can become sacred moments. They're not battles, it's not dieting, it's not restriction. I'm not, I'm not gritting my teeth saying I want that, but I have to have this. It's just connection with our bodies and with God, which is a really great place to be. And by the way, if you want a copy of these intentions of Holy Spirit Let Eating, you can get that at this URL. Are you ready? Team Lifeisgood.com forward slash intentions with an S on the end, because there's five of them. So it's plural. Team Life is good.com forward slash intentions. And it will download as a PDF, and you can have those at the ready anytime you want them.

SPEAKER_00: 25:01

Yeah, they are so life-giving. Life-giving. If you've been feeling discouraged, if the new year already feels like another failed attempt, we want to just say this very, very clearly.

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You are not behind. You are not broken. You are not too late.

SPEAKER_00: 25:25

Oh, those are those are words that that bring hope. Okay, so you are invited. You are consider yourself invited. The beautiful little envelope is in your mailbox right now. You can open it and know that you are already invited, not into a diet or a program or a plan or a fix of some kind, but into a relationship with a God who knows you, loves you, and wants to walk with you into peace.

SPEAKER_02: 26:04

And maybe you've been in relationship with the Lord of the universe for decades. He still has more for you. He still has more. I've arrived. Here's your cape. Yeah. What if it could be about practicing presence, being present to God, offering him my attention as well? And what if it could be about returning again and again? Anytime I slip, stumble, fall, slide, whatever, I can return to the one who gives true peace. No failure need be final. None of them are fatal.

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They really aren't. Yes. What if 2026 could be the year you stopped striving and started receiving?

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Yay!

SPEAKER_00: 27:09

That sounds good, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_02: 27:10

That sounds really good. We're cheering you on. We are cheering you on. We're praying for you. We're walking with you. If you want deeper support, we do have programs if you want one. Do you have a plan?

SPEAKER_00: 27:25

Not a plan. Well, let's just say let's say class.

SPEAKER_02: 27:30

I don't I don't like the word program either. If you want deeper support, come check out. We've got one called Transforming Grace or From Shame to Shalom. And this is all about drawing closer to God and aligning my thoughts with His thoughts, renewing my mind so that I can think with the mind of Christ. It these are scripture-rooted, spirit-led, and that's Holy Spirit-led, by the way. We're not just hey, hey, spiritual or whatever. Right. And shame free. You know what? We want to encourage you and guide you into a new way of relating to food, your body, God, eating, life. Life. We want to live the spirit-led life. And spirit-led eating is a product of that as well. So good news.

SPEAKER_00: 28:20

Yes, yes. So until next time, take a deep breath. Know that you're not alone. Deep breath. And know that peace is possible. Yay! Go get that invitation in your mailbox. God is inviting you into something new and different. We're so glad you've been here today. We're so glad. We'd love to invite you also to our next podcast, episode of Revelation Within. See you next time.