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Post by Teresa on Sept 20, 2009 7:52:05 GMT -8
It's been a few weeks now since most of us have made a serious commitment to give God Lordship in our eating. We have been discovering that while the idea sounds very appealing, the day-in and day-out logistics of giving Him control of such a vital part of our day-to-day life is a bit of a pain. It is so easy to fall back into old habits. It is so easy to tell ourselves, "gee, today I want to make an exception and eat however I want." Or we may start out intending to resist a temptation and then fall into it until we are in over our heads.
So, this is where we need to sit back and evaluate with the Lord. We need to review our success, or failures and our strategies with the Lord. We need to make a recommitment to His lordship...remember, it is not about "diet" per sae..it is about letting Him be boss in this rather all encompassing area of our lives.
Yes, it is a battle, but God is with us and He will empower us to walk this out. It may be a struggle to develop the eating (or whatever) habits that He asks of us. It may be "two steps forward and one step back" at times...but we need to ask ourselves...do we really want to give Him lordship in this area? If the answer is yes, then we can be assured that He will help us and that He will be patient with us in our struggles. And we need to keep on keeping on...
If the answer is "no" but we've already made a commitment to God in this..then we have a problem You see, He took us seriously when we offered to give Him lordship and He doesn't want to give it back to us...so we are setting ourselves up to fight against Him...a battle we will never win. Fortunately, He loves us and He "fights" with love and compassion, but the bottom line is that once we've offered God control in an area of our lives, He really expects that control and He doesn't let us just change our minds. So for some of us, it may be a matter of going back to God and telling Him that we are struggling with our motivation to truly give Him lordship in this area, and then ask Him to help us with that.
Anyhow...having said all that, how is it going in terms of actually walking out His lordship in the area we have given to Him? - teresa
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Post by Teresa on Sept 20, 2009 11:27:52 GMT -8
I wrote the first post before leaving for church. Well...you'll never guess what the sermon was at church today. It was all about how we can't "pray the prayer" and receive Jesus as Savior, but how we have to give Him Lordship in our day to day lives. Rodney (our pastor) emphasized how Jesus told us to "count the cost" before we commit to following Him. He shared this passage, which is a tad sobering: Luke 14:26-30 [CEV] 26You cannot be my disciple, unless you love me more than you love your father and mother, your wife and children, and your brothers and sisters. You cannot come with me unless you love me more than you love your own life.
27You cannot be my disciple unless you carry your own cross and come with me.
28Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. What is the first thing you will do? Won't you sit down and figure out how much it will cost and if you have enough money to pay for it? 29Otherwise, you will start building the tower, but not be able to finish. Then everyone who sees what is happening will laugh at you. 30They will say, "You started building, but could not finish the job." I guess that the way this relates to us in His-Lordship is that we need to Love Him More than we love our eating (or whatever out-of-control area it was we put under His Lordship). For instance, I love my sugar-free chocolates...and the Lord permits them to some degree. But yesterday I "loved them more than Him" and ate about 1000 calories of them. I guess I was looking to them to comfort or satisfy me instead of looking to Him for that. I believe that He told me it is OK to love my sugar-free chocolates as long as I love Him more and stick to the healthy eating guide lines that He gave me. E.g., He is OK with me having a serving of it, but it is not OK to have 5 or 6 servings like I did yesterday. I truly believe that as long as I keep loving Him more, He will permits small quantiles of some of the foods I love, but if I turn them into Idols, then He may ask me to put they away all together. So I am going to work on Loving Him More in my eating. - teresa
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dodi
Junior Member
Posts: 60
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Post by dodi on Sept 20, 2009 12:09:58 GMT -8
OK.... At our church the topic was the same, Lordship. And stress at work is so bad. We, co-teacher and I had a parent in there Friday complaining about every thing we do. So far since early August, I have stayed away from sugar, but honestly today i feel like i simply can not keep on doing anything at all. I guess I need to go to HIM but if I do feeling like this I will simply weep. It takes so long to undo a lifetime of poor eating choices. Food will not satisfy I know that but at the moment of eating it, it sure will taste good. Aren't you glad I responded. LOL. But I did hear what u said. " we've already made a commitment to God in this..then we have a problem You see, He took us seriously when we offered to give Him lordship and He doesn't want to give it back to us...so we are setting ourselves up to fight against Him...a battle we will never win." Blessings
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Post by renkymac on Sept 21, 2009 10:56:50 GMT -8
I am finding that not only do I have to give Him lordship every day, but often way more than just once in a day! I start each morning now with the prayer that God will guide my eating and help me to be successful in disciplining myself, but I rarely make it through the day without sampling something that is a no-no! Then of course I have to start all over the next day. It is frustrating, but I know that if I just keep at it, I will reap the benefits - A healthier body, and a stronger, more obedient spirit.
The diet plan that I am on has lots of people who have lost so much weight easily, they claim. I guess I am just not one of those people...seems like every pound I have lost since last spring has been a fight! Hard not to get discouraged but I am determined that God and I can win this battle! I am in this for the long run, so I just have to trust that, as Phillipians 1:6 says, God will be faithful to complete the work He started in me. I'm claiming that promise not just on a spiritual level but also on a physical level as well. I think it's my life verse for this stage of my life!
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Post by texasstar99 on Sept 30, 2009 8:07:38 GMT -8
I have been able so far to stay off of aweets and red meat. As I have saID BEFORE NOTHING REALLY WORKED FOR VERY LONG----uNTIL i MADE THE COMMITMENT with His Lordship. The first day I I joined I said to the Lord" If this is the program for me as a mature christain then please take away my desire for ice cream and other decietful Foods" He did this for first with ice cream and slowly but surely He took away my desire for all sweets.And red meats&pork!
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Post by texasstar99 on Sept 30, 2009 8:16:25 GMT -8
P.S. I failed to say I am 78yrs. young. So if I have been at this type of bondage for some 30yrs. PLUS. THen I know that those of you that are just getting started, will by the grace of our Lord, with His help WILL MAKE IT! Take it from me, this is sooo-God, that it will WORK! Love :Ya All. (texas drawll)
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Post by Teresa on Oct 2, 2009 8:43:35 GMT -8
Well, I have to "fess up" that I got into a slump that lasted almost a week. Eating wasn't really the problem for me (though I did gain somewhere between 1/2 and one pound over the past week instead of loosing). But instead of giving God lordship and drawing close to Him, I went into "vegetate in front of the TV mode"...which is an area that God asked me for lordship in (along with my eating). But I find it rather difficult to give that area to Him. Well, more precisely, I give it to Him, but then I take it back when I'm tired/frustrated, etc.
The last week has been very busy and very hectic for me. I found that all I wanted to do during my unscheduled time was to vegetate in front of the TV instead of praying, reading bible, taking care of my godspeak emails, visiting the his-lordship board, etc. It was not a good week for me spiritually, to say the least. And since I was aware of that, I had this feeling in the back of my mind that God is probably disappointed/displeased with me. Then He began to speak to me that He loved me and wanted to comfort me...and I wanted to discount that as "not His voice" because I assumed He'd be in more of a "correction and rebuke" mode toward me.
But He wasn't...even though I was displeasing Him and even though I was watching way more TV than my allowed 2 hours, His posture toward me was different than my carnal mind expected it to be. Don't get me wrong, God wants me to give Him lordship and He wants me to submit my TV and my eating (and especially my "mindlessly eating when I'm bored" in front of the TV) to Him. He wants Lordship and He wants an intimate relationship. But I'd somehow messed myself up and instead of wanting to punish me for doing that, He wanted to comfort and heal me and get me "spiritually healthy" enough that I could start having victory and giving Him Lordship in these areas again. Even though I was "bad" all week...God's agenda wasn't to smite me, but to restore me.
In my family when I was growing up, I was always punished for unacceptable behavior (swift and often harsh) but I was seldom rewarded for good behavior--it was just the "expected norm." So my mental image is that I will be punished when I don't measure up...and even though I know better in my "head," my heart carries that expectation into my relationship with the Lord. So that made me feel hesitant to run to Him for help when I got so lethargic and wanted to do nothing except watch TV when I wasn't forced to do something else.
But God showed me (once again) just how GOOD He is. He took me into His arms and comforted me and held me close and loved me when I thought He should be punishing me. I kept waiting for the rebuke to come, but it never did. I finally asked Him if He was upset with me for not giving Him lordship all week. He said that my decision to draw away from Him to pursue my own agenda hurt Him (and I could feel a bit of that hurt when He said that) and made Him unhappy. But He loved me and what He wanted was to be back to our usual close relationship, so He was much more interested in restoring me than in punishing me or pushing me away.
So if you have had some of these same type of struggles in giving Him lordship in your eating, I want to remind you that HE IS GOOD and HE WANTS US TO SUCCEED. In fact, He is much more interested in helping you to succeed than He is in punishing or rebuking you. So if you've been struggling, take a chance and run back to Him for help. I bet you will be glad if you do! - teresa
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dodi
Junior Member
Posts: 60
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Post by dodi on Oct 3, 2009 8:03:07 GMT -8
Hi Tersea, Thank you for sharing that, especially the last part...In fact, He is much more interested in helping you to succeed than He is in punishing or rebuking you. So if you've been struggling, take a chance and run back to Him for help. I bet you will be glad if you do! .... The other day, it seemed he was telling me ..sin is the result of unmet need or trying to meet legitimate needs in our own illegitimate way. Overeating included but really any sin that I can think of. He went on to say that He desires to meet our needs, mainly by loving us...and a few weeks ago he told me, it seemed that often the correction he would give is His Love, even feels more like love than rebuke. And so often, allowing ourselves or for me at least, to sit and just receive his love is still so very difficult. I am truly sorry that must offend his heart... My prayer for all of us is that we be willing and able to go to HIM instead of habits or whatever and that we will all grow in our ability to do that. blessings and shalom
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Post by renkymac on Oct 3, 2009 9:20:21 GMT -8
Awesome, you girls! I really struggle with the whole punishment thing as well. When I was reading those last two posts, I got a picture in my mind of God as my "cheerleader." He's overjoyed when I have a success and trying to cheer me on and motivate me when I'm not doing so well, instead of turning His back and giving me the cold shoulder when I'm not on track. (Which is what I think I deserve!) What a great thought, that the God of the Universe is on my side and actively engaged in this process with me!
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Post by ericah26 on Oct 6, 2009 5:11:23 GMT -8
I've never had a problem with eating it seems like until this year (2009). I know it has gotten out of control, because I use to be able to fast at the drop of a hat without any problems. But lately it has been a REAL CHORE! I'll make a commitment to eat right, to stay away from sugar and chips (my weakness is chips) and if I get bored, frustrated, stressed, etc..I want to RUN and get something to eat! Some days I do give in, but I know this needs to be back under control. For me it tends to be ALL or NOTHING. I know I have to find a balance (moderation). So I identified greatly with Teresa's post. I have felt in the past that God was this harsh judger, but I know God is love. I am tired and my prayer is for God to give me strength to do this and stay the course.
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