We hate to say good-bye, don’t we? My daughter left three weeks ago for a summer program in Wheaton Illinois and now she and her classmates are in England–London–and will be in Oxford. I won’t see her for another month. Saying goodbye to her three weeks ago was so painful as I knew I wouldn’t get to see her for a looong time and we would be separated by a “big blue wet thing”–the ocean!
Whether it is a precious family member, a friend, orthat last bite, we hate saying good-bye, don’t we? We hate it when that last bite comes! We want to prolong the eating experience as long as we can, so we have “just one more bite” and “just one more bite” after that and so on. We don’t want to have to say “good-bye” to our meal time enjoyment.
This audio shares some truth you can speak to yourself about this.
Summary: Eat half as much, twice as slowly and you land on the last bite at the same moment, but with the joy and victory of having not eaten more than your body needs for fuel! There is JOY and satisfaction in that place! Peace comes with submitting to the Lord’s leadership in this.
How about you…can you do anything to eat more slowly and to tell yourself the truth about the quantity of food that it really takes to satisfy? We aren’t talking about “full,” here. Nope. We are talking about “just enough.” It doesn’t take much!
Hundreds of years ago, Hagar gave God a name – “The God Who Sees Me.” (Genesis 16:13)
In her most difficult place, God made it clear that Hagar was noticed and cared for personally.
The Psalm that we have continued to make reference to through our study so far–Psalm 139–makes it clear that we, too, are precious in God’s sight. He knows us. He cares.
This week, we took a deeper look at the story about Jesus meeting a Samaritan woman at a well in Samaria from John 4. I hope that you are able to take time to watch our group session video below where I share some thoughts about this. (So sorry that the video is so long this week, too. I want to keep them between 5 and 10 minutes in length–hopefully, closer to 5 minutes, but this week, I just got so excited about John 4.)
Some questions that I asked in the video:
Why do *you* think that Jesus “had” to go through Samaria?
Based on John 4, make a list of character traits of the woman Jesus meets. What is she like? What might be the things she struggles with? Why was she at the well at mid-day?
How does it affect you to realize that Jesus “had to go through Samaria” to meet this woman in the middle of the day in the middle of nowhere? What does that say to you about God?
What is the “Divine AND” that Heidi spoke of in the video?
What “Divine AND” are do you want to trust God for in your life?
Can you relate at all to the shame that this woman was experiencing–the shame that kept her from going to the well during the typical times of the day and the shame that might have caused her to want to never have to come to the well ever again?
After her encounter with Jesus, what did the woman do? Like the woman, is there any chance that God may (one day) call you to minister to others after he brings you out?
Do you think God has turned his back on you and stopped listening or caring? What does Scripture say about this?
Do you try to perform to win God’s heart? Or do you struggle with thinking God will never accept you? The truth is, you can’t do anything to win His heart. You can’t woo Him. Why? Because you already have His heart! You are His bride! He has chosen you. He wooed you! You love Him only because He first loved you!
The woman thought she wanted water. The conversation with Jesus proved she wanted–and needed–something deeper.
You may think you want to be thin, but is it possible that you want–and need–something deeper as well?
What do you suppose it is?
God used the woman’s need for physical water to lead her to an encounter with him to offer what she really needed.
Is it possible that God is using your physical challenges with food and your body to lead you to an encounter with him to offer you what you really need?
God knows all about you.
Your history.
Your shame.
Your hopes
Your dreams
He knows your TRUE need, like the woman.
He chooses NOW for an encounter with you.
The story of the Samaritan woman, focuses our attention on heart hunger, certainly. The authors give us an opportunity to process all three hunger types: heart hunger, head hunger, and stomach hunger. What has it been like for you to experience each? On page 62, the authors have a chart for us to record experiences we have with each kind of hunger. Take some time to fill this chart out.
One of the things you may want to consider is the fact that while stomach hunger may seem to be the most straight forward, we nevertheless often experience emotion in response to it. Some of us, when our stomachs are empty, find fear rises up, we get agitated, or panicky. It can be really helpful to sit in this physical hunger for a few minutes and ask the Lord to show you what is going on. Take time to journal about it and to tell yourself the truth (renew your mind) about how you are *safe* being hungry and that God is meeting you in that place.
I would love to hear from you any of your thoughts that you have in response to the questions here or whatever God lays on your heart to share.
I get asked about physical hunger all the time. I made a video to help answer some questions about this. I hope it helps!
Summary:
Hunger is not a sound (a growl), it is a sensation.
Getting hungry will not slow down your metabolism in Thin Within because we eat when we are hungry. We are actually teaching our bodies that it is a good thing to be hungry since that is when we get to eat. We will not go into “starvation mode.”
The stomach is higher than you may think. Knowing this can help you immeasurably in figuring out when you are hungry!
In fact, whatever the addiction, bad habit, or temptation…we often try to stop thinking about whatever it is just so we can be FREE!
But the more we try to STOP thinking about these things, the more we actually think about them. The more we feel ensnared.
Let me illustrate the point this way:
Do NOT think about a pink elephant.
(I know, I have used this illustration before…just work with me! LOL!).
Seriously…do NOT think about a pink elephant. NO PINK ELEPHANT thinking!
What are you thinking about?
Chances are, you are thinking about a pink elephant!
This is true with our eating. When we are trying not to give in to eating a hot fudge sundae when we aren’t hungry, the more we try not to think about it, the more we think about it, until we are overcome and we give in.
So, my theory (and one that has worked for me and others in the classes I have led) is that if we intentionally change what we are thinking about, we will experience the victory we long for.
Not only that, but if heart hunger is really what is luring me to food, then it seems like I need to feed my heart with heart FOOD to experience satisfaction.
Changing my focus from me and what *I* want and to the LORD is a great way of dealing with all of this! By focusing on the Lord, I stop thinking about pink elephants and hot fudge sundaes. 🙂 By focusing on the Lord, my heart is filled up on what it longs for…intimacy with God.
This is what the “God List” is for. It is to take the focus OFF of ME and on to God and to fill my heart up on what it really is missing…intimacy with God. God has placed a heart hunger within me to draw me to HIM. If I keep on feeding this heart hunger with physical food, not only will my heart continue to starve for what it was created to long for, but I will get BIGGER (physically). This starves my heart and over-feeds my body!
If you want to know more about the God List, view this video.
More on the God List and what to do with it next week! 🙂
