When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; For He has no pleasure in foods. Pay what you have vowed- Better not to vow than to vow and not pay. Ecclesiastes 5:4-5
For many years, I'd pray things like: "God if You'd only let me loose all the weight, I will be a better Christian" or a "better wife" or a "better mother" or a better "friend." As you get the idea, the list could go on and on and on of things I promised I would do for Christ if He'd only let me loose all the weight!
Funny thing is, He did allow the loss of the 80+ pounds, but He didn't do it because I made all these idle promises [vows]. Actually, when He had the weight coming off it didn't really have much to do with me, it had to do with Him. I'll explain. I had tried what seems like 100's of different diets, but of the few that worked, I ended up gaining more than I ever lost. So, one day, I sat on my bed and told God, "I give up! If you ever want me to be thin, you'll have to do it, because I can't!"
Well, the thing is, that same day, God took away the craving for large amounts of food, for sweets, and excessive carbs. I didn't plan it. I didn't really have anything to do with it. I wondered about this for several years and then Christ had it on my heart. It was that all those years I made my promises/vows to God to help me loose the weight, the key thing was I was asking God was to stand in the wings and let Me lose it. It wasn't until then, I realized that when I gave up control and thinking I could do it, and told God that "if He ever wanted me to be thin, He'd have to do it," was probably one of the first times in my life that I gave up control and put it in God's hands.
Once it was in Christ's very capable hands, He had everything fall into place. Over the months, He showed me so many lessons about me and my eating. Unfortunately, like recently, I've started falling back into old patterns where I want to be snacking, but fortunately for me, I don't have to make any promises or vows. All I have to do is put control into Christ's very capable hands!