In March, I journaled my way through chapter 8 of Get Thin Stay Thin, formerly published as Thin Again and Silent Hunger. My accountability partner and I met together and discussed these pages as we did the rest of the book. There is just too much good stuff in that book, not to continue sharing the rest of it here at the blog!
Five Things to Consider When Making a Choice About What and When to Eat:
1.) Consider your motivation. Is it food that I really need? Or am I trying to satisfy a fleshly appetite while attempting to avoid dealing with some emotion or conflict?
“I can satisfy my silent hunger only by turning to God.” (Page 175)
2.) Notice the way I think. If I’m not hungry, I may be operating out of old habits and patterns. What unworkable beliefs or conditioned responses are in operation?
3.) Evaluate my daily lifestyle.
Perhaps your internal emotional state is so frenzied that you keep yourself in perpetual motion to avoid the Spirit prompting you to stillness. (GTST page 177)
This is incredible to me today…over a month after I wrote this quote in my journal. Just moments ago during my quiet time, this thought came to me from another source (by John Eldredge) and God whispered to my spirit that my busy-ness this week (which is way out of control–more than most weeks) is precisely this very thing…an attempt to outrun the call to be still and know that God is God…to wait on him. There is something he wants to address deep within me…why do I run?
4.) Be vigilant and pray.
You are in the process of taking every thought and choice captive to Christ. This involves attentiveness to your old ways of thinking and behaving. It involves a willingness to be honest with yourself and with God as you go to him in prayer… (GTST, page 177)
When you invite God to enter your life and allow his will to intervene and govern your attitudes and choices, you will be blessed in all areas of your life–body, mind and spirit. (GTST, page 177)
5.) Continue to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Having just spent time here at the computer, I think I will go be still with the Lord. The frenzied pace I have been keeping can’t be his will. I was convicted that my evaluation of how life is going is how little I have on my schedule that I dread. Good grief! That isn’t the abundant life! No wonder I feel unsettled in my spirit! Jesus came to give me HIS peace, HIS life, HIS joy!
