SPEAKER_00: 0:02

Hi, and welcome to our podcast, Revelation Within on the Go. I am Heidi Biosma Epperson, one of your hosts, and the owner and lead coach of the RevelationWithin.org Ministry.

SPEAKER_01: 0:15

And I'm Christina Botley, your other host, also a Revelation Within coach, and Heidi's partner in all things Revelation Within. And we are so happy to invite you to join us for this episode of Revelation Within. Yay! Yay, we're so glad you're here. Come on in.

SPEAKER_00: 0:41

Yeah, come on and sit right down. Yeah. Well, I think for our second of four Radiant Grace episodes, we're gonna talk about why do we turn to food when we're tired, when we're lonely, when we're overwhelmed, etc., etc., etc., etc. Etc.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00

etc. Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00

And why does shame want to play the game with us? Why is shame our companion when we're tired, lonely, and overwhelmed? Uh today we're gonna explore a little bit about that and how Radiant Grace can kind of reframe emotional eating, not as a failure, because remember, we like to look and learn. Any slip, stumble, slide, or fall or failure can be learned from when we invite God into it. Yes. So we're gonna do that with emotional eating as well. And it can actually be reframed, and God can give us information and invitation in the midst of our emotional eating, even.

SPEAKER_01: 1:45

This sounds good. I think I'll stick around. Oh well, I'm glad you will. Heidi, let's just say it out loud. In the moment, food works.

SPEAKER_00: 1:57

It does, it smooths, it distracts, it comforts numbs, and of course celebrates all of the good stuff.

SPEAKER_01: 2:05

It does all of that, which is why shaming ourselves for turning to food makes zero sense. Yeah, that's like no sense. Zero sense.

SPEAKER_00: 2:21

It makes no sense at all. Exactly. And and it's not like we're broken or anything. I don't believe that once we're in Christ, we have that same issue going on of being broken, but we're human. We are human for sure.

SPEAKER_01: 2:36

Yes, we're definitely human.

SPEAKER_00: 2:38

Um Psalm 34, verse 18 tells us that the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Ah, I love that. I love that our God does not pull away from pain or from us being a mess about our pain, He moves forward and toward it. If food has become a refuge for us, he doesn't put his hands on his, I don't know, supernatural hips and say, I don't approve of you.

SPEAKER_01: 3:11

No supernatural hips. I love that. I love that. You know what I love about this verse is that God knows that we are gonna be brokenhearted, yeah, and he knows that we're gonna feel crushed in spirit. And where is he when we are? He's near, he's close, he's close, he's right there, he's with us, he's leaning in, he's with us, and that that's so comforting to me.

SPEAKER_00: 3:42

I love that. So if food has become a refuge for us, it often is a marker, indicating a place where God longs to draw near to us. Yeah, he wants to say, Hey, pick me, pick me. Yeah, he's very loving about it, very gentle.

SPEAKER_01: 4:00

Yeah, we talked about this the other day in our community, how God actually has a longing, you know, like there's there's a longing in him. I mean, does God have longings? I think that's amazing to think about. He does. I mean, I know what my longings are, and he longs to show you compassion. He does, I know, and I love that verse, and I love that he actually has a longing for it. Not not like, well, yeah, that I might do that, you know, kind of that wishy-washy. He's not like that. He actually longs to show us compassion, he longs to be near, he longs to be there for us when our hearts are broken and when we're crushed in spirit. So Radiant Grace is what we're talking about all the month of February. Radiant Grace doesn't start by taking food away. It starts by asking, what is food doing for me right now?

SPEAKER_00: 5:00

And what do I think food is doing for me right now? Right. Because every behavior that we engage in is trying to meet some sort of a need. There's something going on beneath the something that's going on.

SPEAKER_01: 5:12

Yes, there's always something behind it. And that something is important and it's real, and it's not to be um shoved under the rug or pretended about, you know, like, oh, that's not happening, that's not there. Um, it's so important that we look at that need. Matthew 11, 28. Of course, most of you know this verse, I'm sure. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Again, it's an invitation. Again, he's asking us to come. Again, he's close and he's full of compassion for us. Jesus doesn't scold us for being weary. You know, that's big. I think that's huge. Um, if you're weary, Jesus is not disappointed or scolding you or anything. There's nothing negative there. He sees you, he hears you, he wants to meet that need. He invites us to come as we are burdened, tired, and how about honest? He invites us to come.

SPEAKER_00: 6:23

Yeah, that makes me think of that old song during um an invitation to receive Christ that a lot of churches would sing and and it, the Billy Graham Crusades. And as I am, I I come, I come, Jesus, I come. Yeah, just as I am, without one plea, except thy blood was shed for me. I just invites us to come as we are, he really does.

SPEAKER_01: 6:48

He does, and anyway, he knows. I mean, he knows what's going on. It's not like he's waiting to hear, although he does. I think he loves to be in conversation with us.

SPEAKER_00: 6:58

I do too.

SPEAKER_01: 7:00

So, you know, when evenings are hard, which they are for so many of us, when the house finally gets quiet, when the day catches up with us, when we are utterly exhausted.

SPEAKER_00: 7:11

Yeah, food often becomes that place we finally exhale, we finally rest, we finally take a breather. So Lamentations 3, 22 and 23. Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed. His mercies are new every morning, his faithfulness is great, his mercies are new every morning. And I and like Christina often has said, it's always morning somewhere. His mercies are new each moment.

SPEAKER_01: 7:45

Yeah, they are, they really are.

SPEAKER_00: 7:48

Even if yesterday or last night ended in struggle, or maybe I caved in completely, even so, today begins with mercy. God never wakes up disappointed in you or in me. That's awesome. Never ever does. And so if you wake up in the morning and you find yourself struggling with shame, shame likes to be there when we wake up, I think, after a really tough day the day before. Yes, I think shame wants to breathe all over us, wants to tattoo his name all over us, and we know his name is Satan, but God never wakes up disappointed in you. He is saying, Good morning, it's a new day. There are fresh mercies here for you right now.

SPEAKER_01: 8:34

Yeah. Oh, that's an amazing truth. An amazing truth. So, what's the problem then? The problem isn't that we want relief. That's not the problem. That's reality, that's life, that's being human, that's a real need. The problem is when food becomes the only place that we know how to find it.

SPEAKER_00: 8:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 8:58

And of course, those of us who have done that for years and years and years, we know that it's a counterfeit. We know that it's a fake. It doesn't help beyond the moment. It just doesn't.

SPEAKER_00: 9:10

Do you remember that commercial? It was on when I was a kid, so maybe it pre-existed you.

unknown: 9:16

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00: 9:17

I think I know what you're gonna say. How do I spell relief? Oh, and wasn't it Roleid's? Yeah, yes, overeating or help. Yes, yes. And and so obviously, if an advertising campaign would kind of zero in on that problem, it means that it's a common thing. So we all have this tendency at some point in our lives to want some kind of relief. And if if we go to food is the only way to find it, well, we probably need roll aids.

SPEAKER_01: 9:50

Well, we might. And here's the other the other thought that came to mind when you said that. I can't believe it's not butter. Because that, you know, that commercial was about kind of a a counterfeit butter, right? It was another food. And and that, I mean, they were trying to put a positive spin on it, but it was a fake. It was a counterfeit, and it still is. And so that's what came to mind when you said, How do I spell relief? And I thought, oh my gosh, I can't believe it's not butter.

SPEAKER_00: 10:28

Well, and speaking of butter, John 635 speaks of something that we put butter on.

SPEAKER_01: 10:34

John 635 says, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry.

SPEAKER_00: 10:44

And we'll not have to eat the counterfeit. I can't believe it's not butter either. No, absolutely not.

SPEAKER_01: 10:51

Food is a good gift, that's the reality of it. That was God's plan. He designed food to be a good, generous, beautiful gift for us, but it was never meant to carry the weight of our deepest longings. It was never meant to be for that, and it doesn't work for that. And we know it doesn't. We know it doesn't.

SPEAKER_00: 11:15

I want to camp here for just a moment. Uh let's uh think for a moment of uh some of our deepest longings that we had. You know, food is a good gift, but it was never meant to carry the weight of our deepest longings. So I think um what are some of your deepest longings, Christina, if you don't mind sharing.

SPEAKER_01: 11:36

I certainly have a deep longing to be loved. Um, and I think that we all, I think we have built-in longings as humans like that. I think we have um longings to be accepted as we are, longings to be celebrated, to be noticed, to be um, and that's part of being loved, of course. Longings to be heard, to be understood, to be held, to be important to someone. We long to um, and then there's other kinds of longings too. Like we long to we long for peace. Even in the midst of difficult, especially in the midst of difficult situations. We long for a sense of security and safety.

SPEAKER_00: 12:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 12:23

What do you think, Heidi?

SPEAKER_00: 12:25

Well, I was gonna say when we feel those things stirring inside of us, I I know for me there's a sense of agitation and like just something's missing. I wouldn't even necessarily articulate it like that at the time. I just feel this, oh, I don't, you know, it's almost a frustration. Like I need it and it's not there. And I do. I turn, I can turn to food or something else to try to quiet uh what the Hallidays of Thin Within infamy used to call, you know, that silent hunger. Yes, because it's it's being stifled by the food so very often. And so that isn't satisfying a longing, it's just stifling the longing. Yeah, and I don't know. I don't I feel like the healthiest way to handle those deep longings is not to stifle them so that I can't hear it or feel it or whatever, it's to go there with the Lord because no matter what the question is, he says, I am, like I am the answer to all of it. I mean, he named himself I am when Moses asked him, Who should I say is sending me to the Egyptians? And God says, I am. God intends to carry the weight of our deepest longings, he intends to be the satisfaction of our deepest longings, and not just once, but whenever they arise, whenever we feel that sense of something's missing, I am not content in my own skin, or I don't want to be in this place that I feel like I'm in. I mean, that discomfort that we feel when not all is well in our worlds, you know, those longings are there and they're not satisfied. God wants us to turn to him and invite him in. And and so often I run to the freezer or I run to the cabinet or I run to the drawer, whatever it might be, where the uh food items are kept. I mean, historically, that is what I've done. Now it's not as bad as it used to be years ago, but I still think that I go, I I have this mentality that says, okay, this is uncomfortable for me, whatever this is. So I'm going to, I'm gonna eat something or whatever it might be.

SPEAKER_01: 15:51

Well, and you know what is just coming up as you're talking about that, Heidi? I've been hearing a phrase that has been all over the place lately, all over social media, all over everywhere, and it's food noise. People are using the word, the words food noise. And I'm, you know, I've thought about it, I've prayed about it. Is the food making a noise? Right? I mean, that's really what people are saying is I have, I'm actually hearing the food. It's like calling me, it's drawing me in. But what would be a better name for that, really? It's what we're talking about here. We're talking about longings. There's an emptiness, there's a need there, it's an emotional need, it's a spiritual need, it goes far beyond the freezer opening up and calling my name. You know, it goes so much deeper than that. And like you said, if our goal is just to snuff it out, if our goal is to ignore it, pretend it's not there, or somehow just make it go away, distract ourselves. I know for me, it just gets louder later. It comes back and it's louder and louder because I'm not dealing with my emotions in a healthy way. I'm pretending they're not there. I'm shoving them under the rug. I'm trying to get away from them. I'm kind of running away.

SPEAKER_00: 17:21

It's like I focus on the externals, both in terms of quieting the ache, but then in terms of, okay, I can't go there. But I don't deal with what's really going on either. I it's like I'm white knuckling to not react with my typical um modus operandi or whatever they call that, you know, my typical emo. Um, but God wants to to deal with the stuff that's inside, underneath, beneath whatever's going on, you know, that he wants to deal with that. He wants to be enough for that. And he is.

SPEAKER_01: 17:57

He is, he is. But I remember when I first started renewing my mind, and I first came to you, Heidi, and you know, kind of like, what's going on here? Why am I struggling so much? And one of the big aha's that I had was I have never in my life dealt with emotions in a in a healthy way. I don't know how, I've never done it, nobody's ever taught me. Even though I had been to all kinds of different counseling and nutritionist and diet programs and um all kinds of things, you know, even Bible studies, things that were supposed to help me with that, but they really didn't. I just didn't have the answer. What do I do with these emotions? And of course, we hear people come to us all the time who say, okay, so I'm not eating my emotions right now. What do I do with this? Like I'm angry, I'm crying, I'm sad, I'm actually experiencing emotion and I don't know what to do with those.

SPEAKER_00: 19:04

Right. And you tell them what?

SPEAKER_01: 19:07

Yeah. Well, first I tell them I get it.

SPEAKER_00: 19:12

But it's a really good thing when you start feeling those emotions instead of stuffing them. So, like when people have come to us saying, I'm sure a lot more weepy than I've ever been, or I get agitated and irritable more quickly as well. Right. And say, Yay, that means you're not losing your coping mechanism. God now wants to teach you what to do with it.

SPEAKER_01: 19:36

Yes. Well, and I I know I talked before on this podcast about what I used to do. The first thing was always food, the second thing was call a friend. Um, those were my two. And if no one was available, I just kept calling friends. I went kept going down the list until until somebody was home. Um, those days before cell phones, especially when you had to be home to answer the phone. Um, but those were my go-to's. Go to food first. Food was always first. And how'd that work for you? Yeah, it it was awful. I mean, in the moment it helped, but the help was so short. And then pretty soon I had the phone in my hand and I was dialing a friend and I was talking with them about everything. And there's there's nothing wrong with that. Of course, we need our friends, we need people to trust, safe people. But what do I do now? What have I learned to do now? Go to the Lord first. That's something that you taught me, Heidi. Yay! Yay! You said to me, Have you gone to the Lord yet? Because I wanted to go to you. I wanted to go to you. I had already gone to the food, and so then I thought, I'm gonna go to Heidi because you know that's that's gonna be great. And what did you say? You routed me, you pointed to the Lord and said, go to him first. And then you and I did talk about all kinds of things and still do and process things, and um, and that's so important. But going to the Lord first, and then what? What do we do when we go to him? We're honest, we talk about what's going on, share everything with him. He already knows anyway. And then what does he have for us? He has peace, he listens, he's there, he's leaning in, he's longing to show us compassion. Um, and then the two big ones for me are praise and gratitude. Those are the really the two big ones at Revelation Within that we teach the most. You know, get in there with praising him and gratitude because that turns our hearts. It turns our hearts toward him, it makes our hearts soft, and then the transformation can happen. And God brings healing, he brings healing, he does.

SPEAKER_00: 22:08

It may not come instantly, it doesn't usually, but yeah, keep keep going back to him, keep going back to him, looking and learning with him. You know, if this conversation is resonating for you, uh, we just want to encourage you to download our free Radiant Grace planner. Yes, it's been updated for 2026. It offers a gentle place to explore the patterns that we have with the Lord, and you can do that right there in the planner. Um, and of course, if you are in our community, we have uh almost twice weekly little gatherings where we're talking about the Radiant Grace planner. And if you come after the month of February, those recordings are there for anybody who joins to listen to. And they're just short um devotional type times with our community members. And it's, I don't know, I think it's a lot of fun and it tenderizes our hearts so much.

SPEAKER_01: 23:03

It does. Yeah, it's life giving to be there with everybody. The planner is beautiful. It's a free download, updated for 2026, and it's designed to help us notice emotions and needs without judgment. And to learn what do we do? What do we do with those? Where do we go? And what does that look like?

SPEAKER_00: 23:26

So if you want to download it for free, you can do that at revelationwithin.org forward slash planner. RevelationWithin.org forward slash planner. And I hope that it touches you where you need ministering. Yes, definitely.

SPEAKER_01: 23:43

So when we see food as information instead of indictment, something really softens there, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_00: 23:51

Yes, yes, yes, yes. We stop asking, why's wrong with me? And start asking, what do I need now, Lord? Show me. I want to be sure that I scratch where the itch really itches, not just kind of do the superficial thing. What am I needing now, Lord?

SPEAKER_01: 24:11

Yes, yeah. And that question alone, just those one, two, three, four, five little words, that question alone opens the door to grace.

SPEAKER_00: 24:23

Yeah. And you are not weak for wanting comfort. No. Wanting that the need that is welling up in you to be sated. You are not weak for that.

SPEAKER_01: 24:34

No, in fact, you are human and deeply, deeply loved. Yay! And we are so glad that you've been here with us today. And we hope that something something resonated with you today. We have two more episodes in this series of Radiant Grace, and we would love to invite you to come and join us for our next episode of Revelation Within All.

SPEAKER_00: 25:08

We'll see you next time. Next time. Bye bye. Bye for now.