Clinging to Jesus for all I am worth, I will experience victory over sinful eating habits, a greedy heart that wants more, and seeking joy in any counterfeit.

John 15:4-11 is the focus passage for this lesson.

At the heart of this lesson is:

Truly stopping habits of overeating requires ongoing intimacy with God.

Stated another way, enjoying true intimacy with Jesus Christ breaks the attraction that sin offers. Enjoying Jesus Christ Himself must replace the habit of overeating. (TLT, p. 101)

Since I began the “60-60 Experiment” in Soul Revolution by John Burke I have found this to be true more than ever. In fact being reminded to reconnect with God every 60 minutes isn’t frequent enough for me. My mind wanders so easily. For two days I set my watch to beep every 30 minutes. That wasn’t enough either (oh, how I wander!). Today, it is set for every 20 minutes.

Basically, this reminder serves to remind me to reconnect, to re-commit and ABIDE in Christ as this passage in John 15 teaches. It is causing me to get to the heart of where I have been wanting so desperately to be and why I chose to focus on this material in The Lord’s Table. I know that satisfaction and joy are only found in abiding in Christ, but practically speaking, I had been left with how to truly do that in an ongoing way. I have daily quiet times, pray when I have a mind to (there is the tricky thing…my mind wanders so easily…guess I said that already!), memorize scripture (though not as earnestly as in the past), listen to Christian music and so on…and yet, believe it or not, this hasn’t been enough. This has missed it. You know why? Because when push comes to shove, these things are “stuff.” Even an unregenerate person can do them…but to welcome a continual, regular reminder of God’s presence in my life and to choose to reorient myself no matter what I am doing and praise or thank him, or ask Him for what HE wants in THIS moment…well, that isn’t something I would have any interest in doing apart from the Lord being at work in my life.

So, for me…this is the heart of what it means to feast on Christ.

One participant quoted in TLT workbook says: If we remain in Jesus, our souls are nourished, we are fed, we grow and have life.” (TLT, p. 101)

Abide in the love of Jesus and your joy will be complete. And if your joy in Jesus is complete, you will not have to look for it anywhere else. Your slavery to sin is broken when your love and joy are complete. (TLT, p. 101)

With the reminder to reconnect with the Lord in regular time increments throughout the day, I can’t “follow at a distance” as Peter did in Luke 22:54-62. Following at a distance was the precursor to denying Christ. I won’t have that.

As crazy as it may be for now…I will keep my timer beeping constantly at me throughout the day. I trust that the Lord will use this to build in me a habit of *keeping* connected with Him. That is my hope and prayer and then maybe I can graduate to only needing an hourly reminder. I hope so.

I see this as a powerful tool in helping me to live for the Lord. Not just in my eating, but in every way. In my speaking, in my driving, in my thinking, in my living…period. This is teaching me practically what it means to abide in Christ.

Jesus commanded me to abide in Him. When I do, HIS joy will be in me and my joy will be made full. Eating freshly baked brownies or peppermint ice cream can’t compare to that. It sounds ridiculous to even imagine that I ever could look to food for joy!