I believe that this is the heart of The Lord’s Table and Thin Within, too…and well, LIFE for that matter! This teaching is pivotal. I know that the sooner I embrace this and apply it to my life, the sooner I will grow in Christ-likeness. The more faithfully I apply myself to this teaching, the less food will have a worldly pull on me and the more my freedom will be a REALITY instead of just something “out there.”
Yesterday’s teaching in TLT was on the fact that food isn’t my problem…that isn’t why I struggled all those years with being heavy. It wasn’t the food’s fault. The real issue is my heart and if I will allow God to transform me.
Today kind of builds on this idea. Some quotes from the lesson to whet your appetite 🙂 :
(Again, I recommend purchasing the PRINTED study and doing it, rather than doing the online version with the assigned mentor)
The emphasis of our lvies is to be on the acquiring of and feeding on Christ (appropriating Him). – page 17
Christ is real food for the soul, and to embrace Him and feed on Him produces freedom from life-dominating and/or habitual sin.
The author goes on to explain that all the focus on planning, preparing, buying, whatever it may be…that is allowing food to have our focus. This is why dieting doesn’t reallly help change the heart. ALL the focus when dieting is on the food…the very thing I have to get away from…I have to somehow get rid of the focus on food and trade it for something else…a different focus.
Even though I am not carrying extra weight any more, this is definitely the case for me as well. It is clear to me that God wants these truths to be brought home to my heart…and applied to my life.
Referring to John 6:25-27, the author says, “Notice that…Jesus Christ changes things all around. Right in the midst of visualizing our next meal He says to Work for food that endures to eternal life. In other words, ‘change your focus from the physical to the spiritual, from food to ME!'”
He explains that this is the key to being free from our obsessing about physical food. We can’t just grit our teeth and “Just do it.” We must replace that obsession with one Holy Obsession…the Lord and His Word.
The rest of the lesson shows scripturally how “feasting on the Word of God” will be satisfying and take care of much of what lures us to food. We are retraining our brains and hearts…instead of the agitated, irritable “I want something now” landing us in the pantry or standing at the fridge, we train ourselves that this is a sign that our hearts need spiritual food…and we turn to the Lord in prayer and to his Word.
Day 6 Summary in Short: Feasting on the Lord and His Word is not only satisfying, but it is food that will last. It is eternal, not temporarl. I want to be consumed with thoughts of the Lord more than thoughts of food. I must DEPEND on the Lord.
Application: How will I begin to train myself TODAY (practically), to make this change? How will I build this godly perspective in my life that I must choose to feed on the Lord and His Word instead of physical food? When I am hungry and need to eat physical food, can I do anything that will foster this awareness even then? What?
NEW!
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