There’s Something Beautifully Straightforward About God’s Healing Plan
If you want better health outcomes, you already know what you need to do:
Get proper nutrition, enjoy the sun, drink more water, move your body, rest well. And breathe, fresh air.
These are the 6 pillars of wellness. The things your body was designed to do more of.
But 1 out of the 8 NEWSTART principles stands apart.
It doesn’t call you to add more to your life, but to pause. To weigh. And discern when it’s time to let go. A principle that”ll help you ask:
“Is this good for me, now and in the long run? Even if it is, how much is too much?”
Temperance will teach you to completely avoid what harms the body, and to use with wisdom and moderation what is good. Lest even good things turn toxic in excess.
While the term temperance gained prominence in the 1800s, mainly linked to alcohol abstinence due to the damage it caused to families, today, it’s not just about alcohol.
Or even just about what you eat. Though that’s how most people tend to see temperance, and understandably so.
The battlefront looks different.
Though alcohol and tobacco are still around, we also face excess sugar and stimulants. Screens, overworking, and pharmaceutical overuse.
Many of these are socially accepted. Some even marketed as harmless.
But Why Have Temperance?
It sounds a lot like self-control—resisting impulses and temptations. I’d like to think they work hand in hand.
Self-control, by some authors, is often linked to appetite.
So in our context, the “power of appetite” and “power of intemperance” will demonstrate the struggle to have self-control.
And this isn’t just about willpower. It’s not that simple. While it plays a role, there’s more going on beneath the surface.
This battle isn’t just in our stomachs. It’s in our brains.
Brain Override
The prefrontal cortex of your brain (where reasoning, judgment, morality, and spirituality happen) helps you think clearly, resist temptation, and consider long-term consequences.
But it’s also the first area to weaken when you’re overstimulated, sleep-deprived, or hooked on sugar, caffeine, or screens.
These inputs shift brain activity from the thoughtful frontal lobe to the limbic system, the center of impulse and emotion.
We stop responding wisely and start reacting instinctively. It becomes easier to snap, harder to pray, and difficult to delay gratification.
So no, it’s not dramatic to say that appetite is a frontline of spiritual warfare. Before we fall morally, we often fall mentally. Neurochemically.
Though sin is a conscious decision, we find ourselves sliding into it easily because we’ve dulled our awareness.
That’s why temperance is essential. It safeguards your brain’s clarity, keeping your mind receptive to truth.
Without it, every other health habit becomes harder to live out.
How Intemperance Steals Our Sanity
Let’s look at a few things we eat and drink, and habits we tend to be intemperate with.
How they disrupt our brain and body, and consequently reduce our healthspan.
1. Sugar: The Sweet Trap
When we think of something that many might consider their greatest point of intemperance, it’s likely sugar.
It’s in our coffee, our bread, our sauces, our snacks. It’s celebrated in birthdays and baked into nearly every convenience food.
But beneath the sweetness, the body can’t ignore blood glucose spikes and insulin overstimulation.
It stirs up cravings we were never meant to carry.
God created wholesome carbohydrates. Man refined them into sugar. And made it an addiction…
What Happened To Wheat Processing?
Wheat a widely overconsumed carb.
In its original whole-grain form, bran, germ, and endosperm work together to nourish the body.
When eaten whole, wheat digests slowly and steadily. Glucose enters the bloodstream gently. The brain stays clear. The gut stays fed.
But in pursuit of shelf life and fine texture, we began stripping the bran and germ, leaving only the starchy endosperm. Sugary white flour.
Without bran, which acts as a fiber net, starch breaks down quickly, flooding the bloodstream with sugar.
Without the germ, digestion-slowing fats and vitamins are lost. Oxidized or discarded.
Both are essential for satiety. Without, it’s easy to overeat. Add the dopamine rush from sugar spikes. Hooked.
Even Before This Hybridization Had Altered Wheat
To boost yield, profit, and bread softness, breeders crossbred varieties high in amylopectin A. Starch that converts rapidly to sweet glucose.
And don’t many processed grains and starchy foods raise blood sugar and insulin faster than the same amount of sucrose?
That’s not nourishment. It’s engineered addiction.
Even worse, we now add lab-made sugars to almost everything.
Aspartame, sucralose, saccharin, acesulfame potassium, and neotame don’t just sweeten food.
Some have been linked to fatigue, brain fog, mood swings, and gut imbalances.
2. Screen Overexposure
Previously, we spoke about how overstimulation has got us in a chokehold.
But perhaps nothing fuels it more than screen addiction. Another socially accepted form of intemperance.
We scroll for connection and relief, but often leave more drained, distracted, and restless than before.
This is the new appetite. Insatiable and ubiquitous.
The average Joe spends almost 7 hours on their phone daily. Notifications. Algorithms that fragment our attention and deep thought.
And many, without realizing it, slide into darker traps. Lust, comparison, envy, gore content. Then the downward spiral that comes along with it.
Temperance here isn’t about screens themselves, but how much of ourselves we’ve surrendered to them. And how little space they leave for the actual communion we were made for.
3. Addictive Stimulants
Caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine are daily habits for millions, but they share an intemperate nature. Stimulate briefly, deplete deeply, and invite addiction over time.
Their effects may feel helpful at first, but the body quickly adapts, pushing users toward ever higher doses just to feel the same buzz.
(a) Caffeine
In coffee, tea, energy drinks, and sodas. It’s the most frequently consumed stimulant worldwide.
It blocks adenosine (check out our rest article) and overstimulates dopamine and acetylcholine, giving temporary alertness and pleasure.
But with repeated use, the brain creates more adenosine receptors, making natural energy kick, or rest harder to achieve.
(b) Alcohol
Though normalized in social settings, alcohol affects both the body and mind.
It alters neurotransmitters, reducing inhibition, causing relaxation, and impairing judgment.
As tolerance builds, users often require more to get the same effect, deepening physical and emotional harm.
(c) Nicotine
Not limited to cigarettes, vapes, and nicotine pouches.
It hijacks the brain’s reward system, giving a dopamine spike that fades fast, prompting repeated use.
Over time, blood vessels may stiffen, the heart strains, and the brain’s chemistry is altered. Casual use turns into a lifelong dependency.
4. Pharmaceutical Overuse
Self-medication is rising due to Dr. Google and distrust in doctors.
Also, many find consultations costly and rushed, leaving them unsure about their illness, its cause, or how to prevent it before getting a prescription.
So, many skip the clinic and just rely on over-the-counter meds or leftover antibiotics and painkillers. Overusing or misusing them.
This is another subtle form of intemperance.
Overusing antibiotics doesn’t just kill harmful bacteria. It also wipes out beneficial gut bacteria, disrupting the delicate balance of our microbiome.
Painkiller overuse is common among those with crazy frequent headaches and abdominal cramping.
The temptation to take pills regularly to silence the pain can lead to dependency, mask underlying issues, and sometimes cause liver damage or gastrointestinal issues.
Living with Balance: A Better Way Forward
This post was incredibly hard to put together. Not because the intemperance points are unclear, but because each one deserves its own spotlight.
The goal wasn’t to exhaust every detail, but to stir your thinking and help you notice where you might be living out of balance.
Here are a few practical ways to begin restoring temperance in each area:
✅ Sugar & Overeating: Cut back gradually, and swap in healthier options. Our post on nutrition goes deeper.
✅ Screen Overuse: Check our phone addiction post for the full scoop. In short, schedule your screen time.
✅ Stimulants: They offer no real nutrition, and often mask issues like sleep deprivation and stress. Identify the root, work on it, and start weaning off.
✅ Pharmaceutical Overuse: See a doctor to find the root issue, and support healing through lifestyle changes.
✅ Overworking or Over-resting: Work too much? Protect time to rest. Too much leisure? Schedule it.
The Invitation
When the mind is under the influence of intemperance, it becomes reactive rather than reflective. It craves instead of actively choosing.
The frontal lobe is weakened, while the emotional brain takes the lead. And Satan knows this. He doesn’t always need to tempt us with obvious immorality. Often, simple indulgence is enough.
Disarmed by unhealthy foods, drinks, and habits, we become easy prey. Not just to illness, but to confusion, doubt, and spiritual blindness.
Temperance is your invitation. To guard the mind, care for the body, and honor the God who gave us both.
