Week 1: Introduction — Made to Crave

1.Lysa opens with the honest confession that her struggle with food was really a spiritual issue in disguise. Before reading this book, how would you have described your own relationship with food — as a physical habit, an emotional crutch, a spiritual problem, or some combination? What made you pick up this book?

2.The central thesis of Made to Crave is that "God made us to crave — to desire, to want, to long for — and ultimately He made us to crave more of Him." Why do you think God would wire us with cravings rather than simply giving us contentment from the start? What does that design choice reveal about the kind of relationship God wants with us?

3.Lysa distinguishes between the physical desire for food (which is good and God-given) and the pattern of turning to food to meet emotional or spiritual needs that only God can meet. In your honest experience, can you identify moments when food has functioned as a substitute comfort — a way of numbing, rewarding, or soothing yourself rather than turning to God?

4.Psalm 42:1–2 pictures a deer panting for streams of water and uses that image to describe the soul's thirst for God. How does that image land for you personally? Does your soul feel like it is panting for God, or has that longing grown quiet? What might have quieted it?

5.Lysa is candid that she spent years trying to get healthy through willpower and failed repeatedly. She argues that willpower is not a strong enough foundation for lasting change. Do you agree? What has been your experience with discipline-based approaches to eating or health?

6.The introduction frames this journey as a spiritual adventure, not merely a health program. What would it mean for you personally to pursue physical health as an act of worship rather than an act of self-improvement? How does that reframe the goal?

7.Paul writes in Philippians 4:11 that he had "learned" contentment — it did not come automatically. What does it encourage you to know that contentment is a learned skill, not a personality trait? What might the learning process look like for you in this season?

8.As you begin this study, what is the one honest hope you are bringing to it — the thing you most want God to do in you over the coming weeks? Take a moment to write it down or share it with your group.