Are You Digesting God's Word?

Study is a discipline that we in today's culture do not tend to make a priority. How often have I and my fellow bible study friends said we read the lesson right before coming. Reading scripture is the beginning of study but how often do we follow through on what we read. In the book Prayer-Finding Your Heart's True Home by Richard J Foster is a chapter about the Prayer of Examen. At the end of the chapter he suggests that we journal as that tends to help most of us get out our thoughts and feeling and fully digest them. We are eating God's Word but are we fully digesting it and getting all the nutrients it can give us? I am going to commit to making time for journaling each night at 8:30 to examen my day, actions, inactions, words, sins and my readings so I can fully digest and grow as God intends. What will you do to ensure you aren't just eating empty calories but digesting God's word and gaining the nutrients he wants to give you?

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 120

Food is definitely a weakness of mine. I love to eat and my body is geared towards being a snacker but the scale has gone up and up and it is time to make it go back down, down. Self-control is not easy but I do find that if I have something to focus on that it helps. After seeing Jesus forgo the temptations that Satan had put to him in the desert on the mini-series, The Bible, I started thinking about the scripture “man cannot live on bread alone”. It has helped me to stop and think about the food I desire to eat and make a better, wiser decision. The Holy Spirit is working in me to help me control my out-of-control eating one day at a time.

Matthew 4:4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 105

The idea of self-control has been on my mind lately. It has been my typical pattern to go on a diet and lose some weight and keep it off for a while but than something triggers my lack of self-control and I go back to my old habits of eating like I did when I was 20. I can’t do that anymore! My mind and my body are not on the same page. So, yesterday after having an evening of feeling too full, which is so uncomfortable, I opened my bible and started reading some scriptures about self-control. I get the impression from the bible that people didn’t have a problem with self-control when it came to food back in those days. The bible talks more about controlling our speech and our in-take of alcohol. There are probably lots of various things that we can let control us like the television, email, computer games, Facebook, etc. How much of those things am I giving control of my life over to? Think on these things in the week ahead and start making a list of those things that seem to control you and your life. Put the control back into the hands of the Holy Spirit.

1Peter 15-16 But just as he who is called you is holy, so be holy in all  you do, for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

365 Days of Spirit-Filled Fruits Challenge-Day 34

This scripture in Psalms reminds me of how I have managed to have some self-control over the cookies, candies and rich foods of the past month. I think I have finally managed to find my sweet spot. No pun intended. It’s that place where you can have your fats and sweets in the right amount of quantities that won’t make the scale go up and your attitude go down. I can sing with joy and be glad that the Lord has helped me overcome the eating enemy. God didn’t intend for us to not be able to partake of these food treasures but he doesn’t want us worshipping them either. I know my focus being more on the Lord thanks to doing this blog among other things has definitely been the help I needed to overcome the sweet tooth. Now I will have to pass on this blessing and joy to my daughter who has gigantic sweet tooth. Not sure how to go about helping her overcome her sweet tooth but I am sure the Lord will guide me and I know the first and foremost thing will be to take it to Him in prayer.

Psalms 63:5-7 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.

365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 161

Big or small, important or not, everything needs to be praised to the Lord for without him, none of it would be. So, I am praising being able to get on a treadmill after 6 months of injury and pain that kept me from excerising. I had to take it slow and hold on after a while because my back was feeling it too. I am just thankful that I am able to be without any pain and start working on getting this body God gave me back in shape and feeling stronger. When life gets overwhelming, complicated and stressful, we tend to let go of those things like exercising and eating right because it's easy to let them go. I have tried to keep to the eating right throughout this period of non-exercise so that I wouldn't gain too much weight. Funny thing is God has given me a weight gain warning detection system. It's called acid reflux. When I get to a certain weight that shall be nameless, I start getting heartburn. Ouch! No fun at all but it is a motivator to get back to thinking more about what I am eating and making wiser choices. Like our relationship should be with the Lord, eating right and exercising has to be intentional. It doesn't just happen. It takes effort. My plan is to get back into yoga and get this body feeling good and strong in all ways. I am going to start by putting my yoga mat out in the living room as a reminder to get on it and off the couch.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.