As Christians we must have faith, but how do we know if we have enough faith? If we don't have faith, we can't be Spirit-led. If we aren't Spirit-led, change, growth and transformation are not possible. Faith is enough if it moves us to do what God tells us or shows us to do. Our faith in Him must overcome any fear of us taking what might feel like a risky step, kind of like Abraham did when God told him to leave his homeland. (See Heb. 11:8-9, NIV.) Just what is this thing called faith? It is said to be the "confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see," (Heb.11:1). The Amplified Bible defines assurance as the title deed of things divinely guaranteed.
Life can be frustrating. Just when things are going good, something seems to happen to throw a wrench in our plans, casting a dark veil over our future. It leaves us feeling like we have no recourse, no avenue to go forward, no way to the future we thought we could have. We are left frustrated. This feeling can arise from many things like trying to pursue a goal but not seeing any visible results. We are frustrated and give up easily because it seems useless, but then we abandon whatever dream we had and are even more frustrated. Frustrations continue when we go over and over the possible scenarios that could happen because of something that has already happened.
God isn't human, so He doesn't have anxiety, stress, worry and fear. However, He is not oblivious to any of that because He sees us and knows everything about our lives. He knows that this is at the root of every addiction we have, especially a food addiction. We stress and worry because we have taken all the problems in our corner of the world on our shoulders, even though we know God is the only one who can hold the whole world in the palm of His hand. We're stressing over issues that aren't ours to solve. Every issue does not end in us. It ends in God.
Fear is "false evidence appearing real." Though this is often true, there are times we are and should be afraid, such as when a lion is breathing down our necks! God designed a built-in mechanism for those times called the fight-or-flight response, also known as the acute stress response. This is the response our body has when we are afraid, whether it is a real or perceived fear. Our bodies will release hormones to help us deal with the issue or to run away to safety. We will feel our hearts racing, our breathing increase and blood rushing to our limbs. The blood flows from our veins to our extremities to get us out of danger. When this happens, we aren't thinking; we are just getting out of the situation ... and fast! Then we return to normal.
We all have issues. It's just a fact of life. And when the issues we are concerned about are beyond our control, we tend to worry and stress over them. Then, we do irrational things, such as eating everything unhealthy in our homes or running to the nearest fast-food restaurant to get something even more unhealthy. In addition to whatever mental and emotional stress we feel regarding the "mini-crisis" in our world, we now have just added physical stress to our bodies in terms of additional pounds.
Have you ever prayed and asked God one thing, and He seemed to answer with something that was totally off-topic? For most of my adult life, I felt this way when I prayed about my life's calling or direction. My prayer would always start out something like this: "God, I know You've called me to write, but it feels like there is something specific I should be writing. Would You show me, please God? Call, and I will do whatever You want me to do." Eventually, God would answer, but it seemed His answers to my plea for direction were totally incongruous with what I thought I was asking.
Have you ever been stuck? When I weighed 430 pounds being stuck was a fear I had. I didn't sit in booths because I was afraid I would get stuck there. I didn't go in caves because what if I got into the depths of it and I couldn't fit through an opening? Then I'd have to go back to the beginning or wait there all by myself. I remember one time when I was a teenager. We went on vacation to Lookout Mountain in Tenn. They had one pass called Fat Man's Squeeze. I didn't even attempt to go through it. There was a way around it although it was up steep stairs and down more steep stairs.
God always gives me a word for the year. It's usually a word I either think I know or don't want to spend time thinking about. This was more than true with the word He gave me for 2021. It is the word "more." The first thing I thought when He gave me the word was, What more, God? I don't want more. More means I have more to do, more to handle. I'm not sure I like this word. Here's the deal: God doesn't care if I like it or not. He wants me to understand and experience what the word means.
Our society's emphasis on performance is screaming at us to work, work, work. The pressure is on to make more money, to have more stuff, to save money for hard times, to do more and more and more. It's an easy trap to fall into. We feel we are forced to work two or three jobs just to support our families, but in financially supporting our families, we are not there for the love and support our children need. Then that morphs into even more issues. In the process, we have forgotten how to really rest and relax. God knew we'd have this problem, and that's exactly why He modeled for us what rest should look like.
After surrendering sugar and learning how to go forward, I began losing weight and keeping it off. I was finally headed in the right direction and had processed and dealt with many things that had held me back on my journey. Then, I hit what felt like a brick wall. I was at the 200 mark and I so wanted to go into "onederland." I had been steadily losing weight, but when I would see 199, I would panic. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong.I was exercising. I was eating all the right things and none of the wrong things, but I just couldn't stay at 199. The next day I'd be back to 200 and I would feel myself internally breathe a sigh of relief. It felt a lot like the Romans 7:19 conundrum. "The good I desire to do, I do not do, but the evil I do not want is what I do."
« Newer 1 2 3 4 5 Older »