I was awakened a couple nights ago with a really vivid dream. I won't print all of the details here, but long story short, I walked into a church and sat down in the back. The pastor said he wanted someone to get up and preach on 1 Cor 9:17. The man sitting next to me said "This lady next to me should - you should see her bible, it is covered in notes and highlights!".. so they asked me to preach and all eyes and ears were one me.
When I woke up in the morning, I went directly to my bible to look up that scripture. Much to my dismay it says:
If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
I felt immediately horrible.... I felt that I have not been taking care of my temple as I should. So I felt condemned. The fact that I KNOW the Word.. I know what to do.. and yet still don't do it, was speaking volumes to me.
Yet when I shared it with a few close friends, they said they saw it as a dream of encouragement from God.... saying that He loves me and I am holy.
All I know is that there are conditions in which we receive from Him.. and we also reap what we sow... and I have not been sowing the best seed. I took it as a chastisement, a warning, from the Lord.
If we would just listen to it - absorb it - cherish it, we would sure have an easier life!
Here are just a few nuggets regarding our health and eating:
Psalm 136:25
He gives food to every living thing. His faithful love endures forever.
Proverbs 30:8
Feed me with the food allotted to me.
Proverbs 3:8 Keeping His commands will.....
Be health to your flesh and strength to your bones.
NLT says it this way:
Then you will gain renewed health and vitality.
Matthew 6:25
Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is life not more than food and the body more than clothing?
"Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but the Lord's." 2 Chron 20:15
We hear so often that the fight we fight on this earth is really the Lord's. But, we cannot just sit around lollygagging - eating bon-bons and watching soap operas!
So, what part IS His? What part is ours? We do have a part, as James says:
"Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.: James 2:17
I've heard it said that we should do all we can do "in the natural" and God will do what He will do "in the super".
Another way to say it: He puts His super on our natural and we become supernatural!
Lord, show us our part; we will trust You to do Your part!!
"Now do not be stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the Lord; and enter His sanctuary, which He has sanctifiedforever, and seve the Lord your God, that the fierceness of His wrath may turn away from you." 2 Chronicles 30:8
Sometimes I wonder why this weight loss thing is so hard to do - to stick with? Other people (not many, for sure) but others are able to say "That's it! No more!" and they do - as if they draw a line in the sand and never cross it again. My dad is that way in life, always has been.
So what makes one do that and others struggle, struggle, struggle?
Could it be stubborness? STIFF-NECKED?
If you know to do good and you don't do it anyway?
If you know not to do bad and you do it anyway?
What else but being stiff-necked could describe it?
Oh, sure. There are EXCUSES. There are REASONS. But when you boil it down, what is it really but refusing to do what you already know to do?
Lord, help us all to yield to You! To surrender our stubborn wills and cling to You!
"I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." John 10:10
Is our being overweight "abundant living"?? NO! NO! NO! A resounding NO!
So if He came that we would have an abundant life, what are we doing wrong? Plenty, it would seem.
The Word is chockful of wisdom as to how to live - on this earth. Why is it so hard to walk in that wisdom?
FEAR!
PAIN!
DOUBT!
UNBELIEF!
Oh Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief! Your Word has all the knowledge and wisdom we need to walk in health here on earth, as it is in heaven. Grant us Your mercy, Lord!
I was thinking about Elijah and when he was running in the desert, scared and discouraged. What did the angel of the Lord do to restore him? He gave him some bread and a cruse of water! (A cruse is a large jar.) He gave it to him and he slept, then the angel gave him another!
It has come time to really face it.... how badly do I want it? How many 'aha' moments do I need to be confronted with before I will take action ONCE AND FOR ALL? It is bizarre that one can want something so badly, yet not take the action necessary to obtain it. Duh. Mind boggling.
I was reading in the Word where Paul said: I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.
That is truly what it must take - discipline, action, self-control. And a large dose of endurance.
