Quietly Ignoring the Elephant – Revelation Within

GLP-1s, Fear, Freedom, and Walking With Jesus

There is an elephant in the living room.

For many of us, it may be sitting right between the sofa and the coffee table while we quietly talk around it.

GLP-1 medications.

Some women in our community are using them. Some are considering them. Some have used them and stopped. Some feel strongly that they never want to use them. Some have moved from GLP-1s to dieting, from dieting to intuitive eating, from intuitive eating to Spirit-led eating, and sometimes back around again, trying to find their footing. And for the record, any and all of this may be Holy Spirit-led!

Many of us are reluctant to talk about any of it.

I understand why.

This is tender territory.

Food has been tender.

Our bodies have been tender.

Weight has been tender.

Doctors’ appointments have been tender.

The opinions of other people have been tender.

And for those of us who love Jesus, another question gets added to the pile:

What does God think about what I’m doing?

And sometimes, underneath that question, is another one:

What will the women in my community think about what I’m doing?

Friend, I want Revelation Within to be a safe place for that question.

Not a place where you have to hide.

Not a place where you have to defend yourself.

Not a place where everyone has to arrive at the same conclusion.

And not a place where any of us becomes an evangelist for the choice we have made.

“Where are you?”

I keep thinking about the question God asked in Genesis:

“Where are you?”

God wasn’t asking because He had misplaced Adam and Eve.

He knew exactly where they were.

They were hiding.

And I wonder whether that same question might be a gentle invitation for some of us today.

Where are you?

Where are you with this decision?

Where are you with your hopes about what a medication might do for you?

Where are you with your fears about what might happen if you stop?

Where are you with hunger?

Where are you with your body?

Where are you with the scale?

Where are you with the fear of gaining weight?

Where are you with the hope of losing it?

And most importantly:

Where are you with Jesus in the middle of all of this?

This is not an inspection.

It is an invitation.

Come out of hiding.

Not because you have done something terrible.

Not because you owe anyone an explanation of your medical decisions.

But because shame loves secrecy, and Jesus continually invites us into the light where there is truth, grace, wisdom, and freedom.

You do not have to have the answer before you come to Him.

You do not have to know whether the medication is right or wrong for you before you come to Him.

You can simply come.

“Lord, here I am. I am not sure what to do. Will You show me?”

That is a beautiful prayer.

I want you to know that I am not writing this from a distance

I have had my own long journey with fear, desperation, my body, weight, health, and trying to figure out what in the world I was supposed to do.

In 2014, I came out of the hospital very, very thin after a serious illness. I was quite emaciated.

Since that time, I have remained on long-term antibiotics, and over the years my body changed dramatically.

I gained weight.

And then I gained more.

And more.

I tried to continue eating in the intuitive, Spirit-led way that had been so important to me, but my body seemed to keep changing no matter what I did.

Eventually, my weight and the physical changes began affecting my health and my quality of life.

I hurt.

Moving became harder.

I became frightened.

And yes, at times I became desperate.

At one point I did a medically supervised crash keto diet. It brought instant relief and It helped for a time.

Then, later, I tried a GLP-1 medication.

I was horribly sick.

I lost weight, yes, but I was nauseated nearly all the time and vomiting frequently.

That was not sustainable for me.

Later came a season of Zepbound.

The weight loss was slower, but I began having frightening heart symptoms—racing and arrhythmia that scared me enough that I knew this was not something I could continue.

And now?

Right now I am eating in what I would describe as a Spirit-led, held-lightly keto approach.

And it seems to be serving me well in this season.

Yes, I have lost weight.

But that is not primarily what I mean when I say it is “working.”

What I mean is this:

My body hurts much less.

I no longer have the frightening racing-heart symptoms.

I am eating food I enjoy.

I do not feel like I am constantly fighting myself.

And perhaps most importantly, I am learning to hold the method more loosely than I have held methods in the past.

I am trying to keep asking:

Jesus, is this still what You have for me today?

Not:

How do I make sure this keeps working forever?

There is a very big difference between those two questions.

Please hear me clearly:

I am not telling you my story because I think my current choice should become yours.

Please do not make my path your prescription.

I am telling you because I want you to know that I understand what it is like to become afraid.

I understand wanting something—anything—to help.

I understand the relief of seeing change.

I understand the temptation to grab tightly to the thing that seems to be helping and think:

I cannot lose this.

I also understand looking back and realizing:

Fear was louder in me than peace.

That is why I want us to be able to talk about these things together.

This is not a “which camp are you in?” community

I do not want us dividing into camps.

The GLP-1 camp.

The no-medication camp.

The keto camp.

The anti-diet camp.

The intuitive-eating camp.

The Spirit-led-eating camp.

The “this worked for me and therefore everyone should do it” camp.

That is not freedom.

We are not all going to make the same decisions.

And that is okay.

Taking a medication does not automatically mean you are bypassing obedience.

Not taking a medication does not make you more spiritual.

Following a particular way of eating does not make you more faithful than someone who eats differently.

Your sister in Christ does not have to reach the same conclusion you have reached.

She does not answer to you.

And you do not answer to her.

We belong to Christ.

So please—whatever choice you have made—hold it with open hands.

Share your experience if it would be helpful.

Tell your story if the Lord prompts you.

But let’s be careful about crossing the line from sharing into recruiting.

We do not need GLP-1 evangelists here.

We do not need diet evangelists.

We do not need keto evangelists.

We do not need anti-GLP-1 evangelists either.

We need women who point one another toward Jesus.

When something begins to feel like “I have to have this”

There is another part of this conversation that I think is worth bringing gently into the light.

Sometimes the thing that has helped us begins to feel like the thing we cannot live without.

Maybe it is a medication.

Maybe it is a food plan.

Maybe it is the number on the scale.

Maybe it is weighing ourselves.

Maybe it is not weighing ourselves.

Maybe it is knowing exactly what we are going to eat tomorrow.

Maybe it is reassurance that our body is getting smaller.

We can become intensely attached to the very thing that has given us relief.

And when we hear ourselves thinking—

“I have to have this.”

“I cannot do this without it.”

“What if it stops working?”

“What if I gain the weight back?”

—that does not automatically tell us that the tool itself is wrong.

But it may tell us that there is something worth getting curious about with the Lord.

Jesus, what is happening in me right now?

What am I afraid of?

What do I believe this thing is providing for me?

What feels unbearable without it?

Where have I placed my hope?

Those are not accusatory questions.

They are loving questions.

They are Look and Learn questions.

They are questions we can ask without condemnation.

Because a medication may legitimately help our body.

A way of eating may legitimately help our body.

A treatment may genuinely improve our health.

But even a good tool can begin carrying expectations it was never meant to carry.

Make me safe.

Make me acceptable.

Make me stop being afraid.

Make me finally okay in my body.

Guarantee that I will never regain weight.

Give me peace.

Those are enormous assignments to hand to any medication.

Or any diet.

Or any eating philosophy.

No medication can give us the peace of Christ.

No diet can.

No smaller body can.

No number on the scale can.

Those things may change circumstances.

They may affect appetite.

They may affect our health.

They may make some parts of life easier.

But shalom is deeper than that.

Jesus is still our source.

The deeper question may not be “Am I taking the medication?”

The deeper question may be:

What am I asking it to give me?

And that question matters.

Perhaps you are taking a GLP-1 because you and your doctor have decided it is appropriate for your health.

Okay.

Can Jesus come with you there?

Absolutely.

Perhaps you are considering one because you are frightened.

Can you bring the fear to Him before making the decision?

Absolutely.

Perhaps you already started and only afterward realized:

I never really asked God about this.

It is not too late.

You have not ruined anything.

You can invite Him in today.

“Jesus, I started this without really talking with You about it. Here I am now. Will You walk with me?”

He will.

Maybe the question is not:

“Did I make the perfect decision?”

Maybe the question is:

“Am I willing to walk with Jesus in the decision I am making now?”

Mind renewal is still for every one of us

This may be the part I most want us to remember.

If you are taking a GLP-1:

Do not put your heart and mind on the shelf.

If you are following keto: