Posts tagged weight loss

There comes a time where you have to lay your burdens down and surrender. If you are like me, may be you try every avenue stubbornly. May be you think in the back of your mind “if I can just get to the point of thin, I could maintain it.” May be you try one more quick fix, one more unhealthy treatment for your body, your temple. When you are done with the quick fixes and done trying to do it on your own, try Jesus. Surrender yourself and sing a new song for Him. He can help you.

“To whom will you compare me?

Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.

Lift your eyes and look o the heavens:

Who created all these?

He who brings out the starry host one by one,

and calls them each by name.

Because of his great power and mighty strength,

not one of them is missing.

He alone can fill voids. He alone can pull our lives together. Take the steps needed to change your relationship with Christ.

Why do you say, O Jacob,

and complain, O Israel,

“My way is hidden from the Lord;

my cause is disregarded by my God”?

Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

and his understanding no one can fathom.

With Jesus directing our journeys He will never tire of our struggles. His grace will never run out. He is an everlasting God, and we cannot be disregarded by God.

He gives strength to the weary

and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall;

but those who hope in the Lord

will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:25-31).

It is exhausting to do this on your own. We can try, but ultimately we tire ourselves out.  We look for acceptance, value, and comfort from any other source but the True Source. Jesus waits for us, my friend. He longs to fill our voids and heal our hurts. He wants us to soar like eagles. This journey can be conquered with Christ. We can sing a new song. We need only to trust Him and obey.

God has blessed me tenfold through this series. I have enjoyed writing and posting His many blessings and lessons the last 31 days. He fills me up, and I spill out His love.

I will continue to write His story of love and abundance through my weight loss journey. I pray you will join me as I do. Look for Weight on Wednesdays on P31Wife.

Praying for our journeys sisters,

P31Wife

Throughout this series, I have been writing about how to look at weight loss with a different lens. A lens that focuses on Christ, his love for us, and the amazing Holy Spirit He left us with. I am not going to tell you anything new today.

Jesus is my super power. He rocks my world every single day. I get into trouble and He hears my call every time. Just today, I let the enemy have a stronghold. He answered. The soft quiet familiar voice of the Holy Spirit floods through my body like fog. He says, “no, beloved, that is not who you are anymore. You are new. I am in you.” And just like that I lift my eyes back to the Lord. It is that simple, but not always easy for our flesh. It takes obedience, and Christ supplies the self control.

Paul tells us in Ephesians that we are a new identity in Christ. He tells the believers at Ephesus “to look at their relationships with God in a new way. He helps them to discover what this new life “in Christ” is, and how to live in Christ and how to face struggles of life through Christ’s power,” (NIV Women of Faith Study Bible, pg. 1927). I am asking you to do the same thing for your weight loss journey.

Jesus fills us with hope and power. What better super powers? He stands beside us as we trudge through the trenches of this world offering us grace and solace. We must only accept. Accept, dear sister! We cannot do this alone. He is our only super power.

Praying,

P31Wife

“I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Join me tomorrow for Day 31 and where we go from here.

I used to want to be the perfect and good girl with potential. So perfect that no one would ever leave me or lie to me or tell me I was unlovable. So much potential that I had lots of possibilities to be good and perfect. I tried so hard. It was a tough cycle to follow, but I kept at it. I worked hard at showing everyone just how perfect and good I was. In fact, I almost convinced myself.

I came to Christ for the first time in 2001. I came empty-handed with nothing to give Him, except bag upon bag of sin. It was unfeasible to me that I could lay it all down before Him, and He’d actually take it. Before Jesus could refuse, I grabbed a couple of bags of my potential and took them with me. Consequently, I left with my potential.

The first time I went to church, I sat in the parking lot almost hyperventilating. In my heart, I wasn’t quite good enough yet. When I walked through the doors I thought for sure the sirens would blare and everyone would see me for the fraud I was. I was a nearly perfect and good girl but I was full of potential. It was obvious to me. Surely, the church would see that too.

The harder I tried to be the perfect and good girl, the more I realized it had nothing to do with anyone not loving me, lying to me, or leaving me. It was just me wasting a lot of time.

Until the day, I actually saw myself the way Jesus did. I stopped being someone else’s latent possibility, and started acting like the wonderfully and fearfully made girl I was made to be. I was a messy, broken, overweight, beautiful, breakable, lovable girl, and I belonged to a King.

The layers of potential started to peel away.

I changed the way I saw myself and a paradigm shifted.

You can change too.

Shed a layer of your potential.

This doesn’t mean that no one lies to me. It doesn’t mean that no one will tell me that they don’t love me or I won’t be hurt or disappointed. Those things still happen and are still painful. What it does mean is that there is One who loves me and will never leave me, and I don’t have to be perfect for Him to love me.

I don’t need potential.

Stop being who you think you should be, and be who you are to Jesus. Be who the Lord made you to be, even if that is messy and broken. In fact, we glorify Him the most when we are messy and broken.

Strip away the layers of the perfect and good girl with potential.

You may find that has everything to do with your weight loss journey.

I did.

Praying,

P31Wife

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them,” (Psalm 139: 13-16).

I am prone to wander. It is in my nature. I take rabbit trails. I lazily look for short cuts. I get distracted by beauty. I get caught up in the moment and toss off pressing responsibilities. I have a horrible sense of direction because I am too busy having fun riding along. God knows this about me. He made me sensitive to my surroundings. He made me an artist so that I could witness His beauty and write about it.

He also blessed me with the gift of discernment. Praise Jesus. Otherwise, I may never reach my destination. Yes, I am prone to wander, but I am not lost. Neither are you. If you find yourself off your path. Stop. Find your direction with the calling of His name. He will turn you around and set you on your way. Traveling in His direction. Toward His goals. For His glory.

Do. Not. Give. Up.

Everyone looses their way sometimes. Come back to Jesus. He is your starting point and finish line. If I had given up every time I had wandered off, I would not be here at the Masters feet before you. Praise God.

You can do it, my friend.

He is full of mercy.

“Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent,”( Luke 15: 3-7).

Praying,

P31Wife

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR7MXFupz6E 

I don’t know about you, but I have spent a lot of time feeling sorry for myself over the years. Instead of being grateful for the things I did have, I wasted a lot of time wishing something awesome would fall into my lap. It did not happen that way. 

How awesome did happen was I started being grateful. God opened my world up. I started being grateful and telling Him thank you for guiding me, teaching me, and blessing me with the self control I needed to get through each day.  I also thanked Him for every other little thing and big thing He blessed me with.

Something changed.

It was me.

“Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire,” (Hebrews 12:28-29).

Weight loss is about changing the condition of your heart first. It is about moving toward the Lord in a way that is consuming. It is about being godly and pursuing moral excellence. It is not just about counting points or the four food groups. While those things are great, Jesus is awesome. You will move mountains with Him. I don’t know about you, but I need to move mountains.

Make a list either on paper or in your mind. For me, paper is always better. I need to see it written down. Write out what you are grateful for today. Just today. And, then thank Him. Send it all up to Him in prayer. If you are grateful that you only had one breakfast this morning, if you are grateful you did not buy donuts for the way home from the grocery store, if you are happy that your children were cheerful when they left for school this morning, write it down and thank Him. You will notice something awesome.

You will change.

You will be awesome.

The old will slip away unnoticed.

Peace will flood your life riding on the back of gratitude.

Thank, Him.

Praying,

P31Wife

I worked almost five months on my weight loss before anyone noticed. It was disappointing and tested my faith. One day my ever-observant-six-year- old-daughter brought my eyes back to the Lord. Children have a way of doing that; don’t they?

“God sees everything; doesn’t He mommy?” Yes, He sure does.

God spoke truth to me through my daughter. If we listen, even through unrelated discussions, we can hear Him.

 ”A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save,”

God knows. Don’t lose hope if you aren’t seeing results and neither is anyone else. God sees it. He sees the ways you choose to obey. He sees the way you open your Bible in the morning and pray. He sees you choose to abstain from one candy bar, one ice cream, one second helping. He sees.

“But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,”

At the end of the day, I have a habit of recalling the day’s events before I can close my eyes and find rest. Over the years, I have listed failure after failure in my head. Relived them in shame. At the end of my list, I either pray or I submit to the failure. Sad nights. I don’t do that anymore.

I still run through my day, but I pray first and after. I pray that God will bring to the front of my mind all the ways I have pleased Him during the day. I pray that if I have any sin that I seek forgiveness and accept that forgiveness. 

“to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine,”

Then, I run through my list.

I pray again.

I ask for forgiveness.

I accept it.

I praise.

I rest.

This has helped me tremendously in my weight loss journey. Yes, God sees disobedience. No escaping that. Most importantly, He sees how I have pleased Him. Praise Jesus that there is no escaping that either. Point is, God knows.

“We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.   In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name,”

Place your sense of value and accomplishment in the Lord. Let Him offer you praise by His standards of obedience. Focus on Him, not the deliverance of this world. It is like putting all your faith in a horse to deliver you, rather than on the maker Himself.  Hold close His words of affirmation and acceptance, not the condemnation of this world. Your journey will stay the course.

“May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you,” (Psalm 33: 17-22).  

Don’t loose hope, friend. God sees.

Praying,

P31Wife

Satan wants to destroy you; this is not news. He will do anything to keep your faith from growing. Anything. In fact, I am quite certain that the one thing he doesn’t want to happen is for you to put all your faith in Jesus Christ. Do it anyway.

The first thing he is going to do is tell you that you can’ t do this weight loss/change your life thing. “It’s too hard, and you will fail,” he says. He is a brazen liar. Do it anyway.

Next, he will tell you that you don’t deserve self control, peace, joy, and love. “You have sinned too much, and you aren’t worth it.” God says you are worth it. In fact, he says you are wonderfully and beautifully made. Believe Him.

But don’t be naive. You are going to have to fight for your joy from the enemy. It won’t just happen. Satan will ridicule, threaten, and taunt you. He is a bully. That is what bullies do. Fight for your joy anyway.

Nehemiah knows all about ridicule, threats, and taunting.

“Hear us, O our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity,” (Neh 4:4).

He built his wall anyway.

“So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart,” (Neh 4:6)

He not only built the wall, but he built it with a sword on his side ready for battle. He worked day and night in his clothes with his weapon. Ready at any minute to do battle.

“Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows. After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes,” (Neh 4: 13-14).

  Nehemiah was committed. Are you?

“So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God,” (Neh 6: 15-16)

God will fight for you. He will do awesome work in you. You must be willing to do the same. You are more than able. You are a fierce warrior.

Fight for your joy, sister.

Praying,

P31Wife

Throughout my life I have focused on the wrong things. I have not only focused on the wrong things, but I have carefully tended them and aspired to grow them. I have reached out to the wrong people. Repeatedly. Wished instead of prayed. Gambled on sin instead of looking to the certainty of the Lord. In short, I have been a bush rather than a tree.

This is what the Lord says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who draws strength from mere flesh
and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.

Over this last weekend God blessed me with a spectacular weekend at our church’s Women’s Retreat. I spent the weekend learning about Simon Peter and a small section of scripture that inspired me to be more effective and productive in my life.

 Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours: Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, (2 Peter 1: 1-2).

I was surrounded with many of my most loved friends and sisters. I also made new friends. I got to see friends who had moved away, and special friends that are more like sisters to me. It was an amazing weekend filled with the Lord’s blessing and teaching.

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires,” (2 Peter 1: 3-4).

Here is an overview of what I learned this weekend as a whole (more on the teaching coming in a different post):

1. I prayed heavily that God would fill me with His Word and overfill my life with His glory. He did.
2. I overcame a fear of climbing a ladder and sleeping in a loft. This may sound like a small victory but God knows how much trust that required. In fact, I climbed up and down several times in the dark! Thank you, Jesus.
3. When I arrived and saw the small space to which I had to climb through to get to the loft, my first thought was “will I fit?” Being heavy for so long leaves you with a perception of yourself that is hard to shake (more blogging on this to come). When I climbed up, I paused to smile halfway. That is when I realized I could have easily fit two of me through the small opening. Praise Jesus.
4. I survived the temptation of the snack table. Let me say that again. I survived temptation. (Cartwheels!) In fact, with the Lord’s help I didn’t just survive, I knocked it out of the park. Seriously, friends, by the grace. of. god. right. there.
5. Our speaker Carla Ritz’s lesson was on 2 Peter 1: 1-10. (Check out her wisdom gleaned from many hours spent in the Word on her blog. You will be inspired.) I am further reminded of how rich the Bible is. One can discuss a small section of the Bible for an entire weekend and pull out many, many lessons from it. Just one small section can change your life. And as Carla reminded us, all you have to do is open your Bible and read. You too can have that knowledge. It will change your life.

 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, (2 Peter 1: 5-8)

One thing that the Lord kept telling me over and over this weekend was this: the Bible is our daily bread and it can be delicate luscious cake. We can consume it daily and heartily like an artisan bread, and it will nourish us, sustain us, and leave us sated and then insatiable for more. It can also be the most delicious and delicate cake. A small slice can fulfill the deepest need. The Bible quells my need for food. It satisfies my need to fill a void with anything other than God. God’s Word permeates me and leaves me yearning for more of Him.

“But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins,” (2 Peter 1: 9).

No matter if you study a few lines or a book of the bible. No matter if you are a scholar or not. God’s Word is for all of us. It was meant to be devoured. All you must do is open it and read it. All of God’s promises and lessons are waiting right there for you.

 ”Therefore, my brothers and sisters,make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” (2 Peter 1: 10-11)

Praying,

P31Wife 

I remember exactly where I was when I truly realized what it meant to sing praises over another human being. I was sitting in a NICU, and he was barely three pounds of flesh and bones.  I sang praises over him this 8 week old premature baby boy of mine.  I didn’t care of i sang off key or if I knew the words or if anyone heard me. All I could do was thank God for his little life and sing sweet songs to him from my heart to his.

Becoming a mother has a way of humbling you. It makes you keenly aware of how vulnerable you are. When I became a mother I realized almost immediately that there was something in this world that I would do absolutely anything for. Someone I would sing praises over.

The Lord your God is with you,
the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
but will rejoice over you with singing, (Zeph 3:17).

Here is what I learned:

1. You are that someone to God, and so am I.
2. It took me a little longer to accept those praises He sang.
3. He kept singing.
4. I had to learn how to recieve those praises.
5. This has been a critical point for me in my weight loss journey.

My heart could not receive the praises God sung over me. But, once I started to understand that I needed to first receive those praises, like the praises i sung over my children, then I began to feel my heart’s acceptance. I felt cherished. I felt praises. I felt lovely. Even if at first I could not feel that love, I had faith it would happen.

In order to change our hearts and change our bodies, we have to see ourselves differently. First, see yourself as a child of God.

You are lovely.

God sings praises over you.

Believe it.

Praying,

P31Wife