If we are not feeding on God’s Word our spiritual strength begins to wane, we become malnourished…If we weaken spiritually we lose our resolve to fight, we have no strength to overcome temptation, and we settle in to living under the power of sin… (TLT, p. 115)
If you have followed the blog here for any length of time, you may realize that while having lost 100 pounds and kept it off for over a year, I nevertheless don’t feel like “the work is done.” There is definitely some work to be done in my heart and mind. It is like the inside of the glutton still lives on, even though the body physically is where it should be. I know there *have* been many changes, but I see just how perilously close I am to becoming what I once was, I guess. My weakness is so clearly before me.
This really came home over the weekend. I felt no resolve. I was weakened and did “settle in” to a way of life I have resisted (by the skin of my teeth) for a long while. I spent a good deal of time processing yesterday’s lesson on perseverance (though I didn’t write that process here…I wrote about it at the Thin Within forums, instead).
One at a time, I have to stop leaning so hard on the crutches in my life. The only crutch that I want is my relationship with Jesus. He is to be my strength, my nourishment, that which I look toward, my soul delights in…I came face to face with how much this was NOT happening. I was excited about cookies, donuts, ice cream. There is nothing wrong with these things, but I was beginning to live for them again. I could see it. So, I felt the Lord’s leading to give these things…all of them to him for a week. It seems so silly now…making such a huge deal of it here. But it HAS been a HUGE deal to me!
Everything is permissible for me”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”—but I will not be mastered by anything. – 1 Corinthians 6:12
I don’t want anything to master me except God. I want one Holy Obsession…HIM. Him alone.
Today’s lesson is a reiteration that the foundation of The Lord’s Table is that the Lord is the Bread of Life. Coming to Him to allow myself to be nourished will satisfy me in the deep places where I hunger.
However, this lesson goes a bit deeper. To read the Word isn’t enough. I have to DO what it says. So when I read 1 Corithians 6:12, for instance, and sense in my heart that there is something that has mastered me…(in my case “sweets”)…I have something I am called to do about it.
It is not just reading “the words of faith” that causes us to be nourished, but rather the applying of them to our lives. (TLT, p. 116)
Jesus said that his food was to do the will of Him who sent Him (John 4:31-34). How much more do I need to depend on this “food”…which is to do God’s will. When I sense what God’s will is, I am to act, to do it. Then my heart is nourished, my soul will flourish. Then I will be strengthened spiritually, as physical food nourishes physically, to be able to do the things I need to, such as to resist temptation…to say “No” to eating outside of godly parameters, for instance.
In order to live right, which certainly includes eating right, we must grow spiritually. In order to grow we must take in nourishment. We are nourished by God’s Word as we read and obey it and do God’s will. It is this application of Scripture, or the doing of God’s will, that brings nourishment to us. (TLT, p. 116)
What is God’s will for you right now? Will you do the hard thing and choose to do it? If you do His will, you will experience a deep nourishment in your soul that strengthens you to continue to make difficult (but God-honoring choices). It is worth it. I have seen this in my own life in recent days as I have given up my HUGE dependency on diet soda and, yesterday, going without indulging my desire for sugary foods. There is something that happens deep in a heart when we do what God lays on our hearts to do.
For me, this is part of my “making room for Him” this Christmas. I have allowed so many other things to crowd out room for Him in my heart. The choices I have been led to make are things I have heard Him asking me to do for a LONG time and have resisted. As I have resisted, I have weakened…there has been less resolve. Truly as if I am starving for nourishment.
But now, as I have chosen to do the hard thing, as I have taken a step of faith to offer more of myself to him (even with resentment at times), there has been a strengthening deep within. What this lesson teaches IS true…there is a nourishment that is infused into the deeper places of my heart when I DO what I know God is calling me to do. When I read His Word and apply it.
It is my prayer that whatever it is God may be calling you to do to honor Him and to make room for Him in your life, you will do it…and be doubly enriched, encouraged and blessed…NOURISHED!
Heidi, I hope you don’t get tired of hearing from me, but what you are going through sounds so much like my struggle. I am eating in obedience to God, and I am losing weight;however, I see how easily I could go back to my old ways if I am not totally engrossed in God’s word and my relationship with Jesus Christ. I am praying for you, and I ask you to pray for me.2 Peter 1:3, His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
Not only sacrifice, but obedience pleases Him…Powerful devotional.
No, Allison! I don’t get tired of hearing from you. Praying for you today! May we both cling to him for all we are worth!