Thanksgiving dinner is one of those meals that I look forward to all year. Thanksgiving is synonymous with turkey and gravy, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, an obligatory teaspoon of cranberries, and pies aplenty for dessert.

Our culture is rife with jokes about overeating on Thanksgiving. (Ever seen a shirt that reads, “Gobble til you wobble”?) While the recommended daily calorie intake for an average adult is 2,000 calories, many people consume 3,000-4,500 calories on Thanksgiving Day! And that’s just the start of it, because the holiday season quickly follows, filled with parties and Christmas cookies at every turn. Before you know it, you’ve gained some “holiday weight” just in time to make some fitness-related New Year’s resolutions … and the cycle repeats.

Thanksgiving might be my favorite holiday, but my conscience has been tickled lately around the subject of overeating.

While many people would agree that it’s wrong to get drunk or to gorge on juicy gossip, how many people think that overeating is wrong?

I didn’t, really, until I read the book Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst, where she wisely pointed out occasions in the Bible when people were tempted by … food. Think about these:

• Right after the Israelites had been saved from slavery in Egypt, had seen God perform miracles like the ten plagues (Exodus 7:14–12:30), and had been rescued dramatically from Pharaoh’s army by crossing the supernaturally parted Red Sea, what did they do? They complained about food. Miriam and Moses’ song of praise in Exodus chapter 15 was practically still on their lips when the Israelites started in: “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death” (Exodus 16:3).
• In Luke chapter 4, Satan was trying to get Jesus to sin. What tactic did he try first? He tempted Jesus, true God and true man, with food. “Jesus … was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.’ Jesus answered, ‘It is written: “Man shall not live on bread alone”’” (verses 1-4).
• Maybe the devil tempted Jesus with food because it was a strategy that had worked in the past. The first sin ever occurred when the devil tempted Adam and Eve with food. “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it” (Genesis 3:6). This seemingly simple spiritual struggle was the impetus for the rupture between God and man.

We are human. We need food to survive, and it is a beautiful gift from God! But like all good things on earth, it is tainted by brokenness since the first people fell into sin. Ever since then, it’s been easy to put food in God’s place unknowingly. I don’t think anyone is bowing down to a bag of Cheetos, but when you are upset and need comfort, where do you turn? When times get tough, do you run to Jesus or to Oreos? Do you dig into the pages of God’s Word or dig into a pint of Moose Tracks? We often misplace our trust and run to the things of this world instead of to our almighty Savior for our help and strength. As it says in Philippians 3:18,19: “For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.”

How often has that been me? How often has that been you?

We are flawed. We daily live as “enemies of the cross of Christ.” But thanks be to God, that’s not our whole story! By grace and through faith, God has made us his children. He sent his perfect Son, Jesus, to stand in our place. Jesus never ran to food instead of running to his heavenly Father. Jesus was perfect every second of his life so he could be an acceptable sacrifice for our sins of accidental overindulgence and purposeful rebellion. He died on a cross and rose again to seal our salvation, and one day we will feast at the wedding supper of the Lamb in heaven for all eternity!

No amount of wonderful Thanksgiving feasts will ever fill the God-sized hole in your heart, but a mustard seed of faith in Jesus will never let you down. God is always there for you. He is your comfort, joy, and salvation—and he is infinitely more satisfying than pie.