Lovely as an Angel

Enjoy the wife you married as a young man!

Lovely as an angel, beautiful as a rose –

Don’t ever quit taking delight in her body.

Proverbs 5:17-20 (Message)

Notice that God doesn’t say ‘if’ she is lovely as an angel. The wife a man chooses is as lovely as an angel and as beautiful as a rose. This is how we should feel as the wife of our husband.

I am blessed by a husband who loves me just as I am. He is attracted to me no matter whether I am large, small or any size in between.

It is me that has a problem with me. But God says that as a wife I am lovely as an angel and beautiful as a rose. This is how I need to begin to see myself.

God made me. And he does not ever make a mistake.

Finding Grace

Oh yes, people of Zion, citizens of Jerusalem, your time of tears is over. Cry for help and you’ll find it’s grace and more grace. The moment he hears, he’ll answer. Just as the Master kept you alive during the hard times, he’ll keep your teacher alive and present among you. Your teacher will be right there, local and on the job, urging you on whenever you wander left or right: “This is the right road. Walk down this road.” You’ll scrap your expensive and fashionable god-images. You’ll throw them in the trash as so much garbage, saying, “Good riddance!”

Isaiah 30 verse 19-21

This passage is a bit longer than usual but it reiterates last week’s passage (Proverbs 3:5-12) which has been the most helpful passage for me as I turn away from food and towards God.

Cry for help and you’ll find it’s grace and more grace… Isn’t grace a wonderful thing? I don’t need to get this right all of the time. In the past, I have gone gung-ho at a diet and the moment I fail is the moment I give up. But God doesn’t want or need perfection. He knows that is not even possible. So He gives us Grace. And he doesn’t just give us Grace, He gives us ‘more Grace’. All this Grace means I don’t need to expect perfection and so I don’t need to give up once I feel a failure. Grace means I get to carry on regardless of how many times I fail. And y’know what? This is going to be the reason I succeed this time.

The moment He hears, He’ll answer… I need to get into the habit of asking God to help me every single time I struggle with food. He will always have an answer. I don’t need to figure this out on my own. I need to listen to God’s directions and follow them.

Your teacher will be right there, local and on the job, urging you on whenever you wander left or right: “This is the right road. Walk down this road.”… This supports Proverbs 3:5-12 ‘Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He’s the one who will keep you on track’ I need to make sure my walk with God is close so that I can here His advise, and hear which way he wants me to turn and perhaps most importantly, hear what food he wants me to eat. When I walk close to Him, I will have His support, His advice and His direction. If I choose to go my own way, well then it’ll just be me, with my history of failure to bolster my efforts.

You’ll scrap your expensive and fashionable god-images. You’ll throw them in the trash as so much garbage, saying, “Good riddance!”… This is important, especially for me. I believe this is the crux of my problem with food. It is my idol. But as much value that I give to it, God’s word says it is garbage and needs to be thrown in the trash. And once thrown, it truly will be ‘Good riddance!’

CRY OUT. LISTEN. FOLLOW. TRASH IDOL

Clear Thinking and Common Sense

Guard clear thinking and common sense with your life…

They will keep you fit and attractive…

You’ll neither tire nor trip…

You’ll take afternoon naps, without a worry…

You’ll enjoy a good night’s sleep.

Proverbs 3 v 21-26

How much, I wonder, do we over think things? Really, losing weight is simple – take in less calories than you use up and the weight will fall off. So why do we need the severe calorie restriction of one slimming club? Or the points based diet of another slimming club? Or maybe the red day or green day of yet another slimming club ? I’ve tried them all. The reality is that this is not clear thinking. Clear thinking would be to donate the money I used to attend these classes and also the money I spend on all the extra calories I ingest to countries where people do not have enough food. It is not common sense to pay to lose weight. It is not common sense to pay for help to stop eating.

Guard clear thinking and common sense with your life… Clear thinking and common sense should be guarded… this insinuates that they are something to be protected, something worth protecting. And maybe, something that, when left unguarded, the devil will snatch from your very self. They should be guarded with my life. They are to be to me more important than living. How big is that?!

They will keep you fit and active… This is interesting to me. It is clear thinking and common sense which will keep me fit and active. Not the gym, not a slimming and exercise club but clear thinking and common sense. I have a friend who embodies all of this. She never does anything fancy for her health but she lives her life with a great deal of common sense and clear thinking. As a result she is slim, fit and full of energy. She wakes at the same time every day; she drink primarily tap water; she eats three square meals a day; she does not snack and she walks a lot with friends and family. There are no grand gestures, just a woman living her life on her own terms, in her own way… and she is a stunner.

You’ll neither tire nor trip… How many times have I joined a slimming club of some sort and then tired of it a few weeks later? How often have I began a new deprived way of eating, y’know, no sugar diet, low carbs diet (I could go on almost indefinitely)? Too many times than I wish to admit too. And how many times did I trip up… maybe eating a pudding at a friend’s house on my no sugar diet, or a bite of my child’s doughnut on my no carbs diet? And once I trip, I immediately think that I have failed (again) and then stuff myself silly with all the foods I have deprived myself with, promising that tomorrow will be a new day. Tomorrow I will conquer this. But my very thoughts are flawed logic. They do not come from a place of clear thinking or common sense. And they ultimately fail me in my quest to lose this fat.

You’ll take afternoon naps without a worry… Honestly? I’m not sure how this relates to me as I try to give over to God this area of my life. But I like to think it is because if I was clear thinking and full of common sense, my life would be balanced enough to take a nap if I needed to without any fear of laziness or lethargy setting in.

You’ll enjoy a good night’s sleep… I don’t sleep well naturally, yet when I fasted for those two weeks I slept really (really) well. Maybe my eating hinders my sleep? I need clear thinking and common sense to understand when I should and should not be eating.

GUARD CLEAR THINKING AND COMMON SENSE WITH MY LIFE

Accountability Weigh In

I am weighing in once a week, on a Saturday and will post it on the Sunday. This journey has now become about more than simply losing weight. I have set no ‘rules’ for myself. Yesterday’s scripture has been booming through my head, and will become the standard by which I live.

I will trust God with this, I won’t try to figure out everything on my own, and I will listen to His voice in everything I do and every where I go. And in doing so, He will keep me on track.

Weight last week: 18 stone

Weight this week: 17 stone 12 pounds

Dear God,

Thank you for impacting my life so incredibly this week. I have learnt so much. Thank you that all I need to do is trust in you, put you first in everything and listen closely to your guidance. Thank you that you will keep me on track.

Please walk close with me this coming week. Please guide me towards you and away from the sin of loving food more than you. I am sorry for the past three decades of turning to food in everything, and I pray you will help me to turn to you. Help me, Lord, as I try to get rid of the influence of food in my life and restore you to your proper place as King.

Thank you that this has been conquered at the cross and I now need to believe and accept what is true to walk free from this sin forever more.

Amen

Listen for God’s Voice

Trust God from the bottom of your heart;

Don’t try to figure everything out on your own.

Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go.

He is the one who will keep you on track.

Proverbs 3: 5-12

This is such a great scripture today! I am learning that I can plan and dream about the wild purpose God has given me, but unless I lay it down at the cross, it is no more than ashes.

Trust God from the bottom of your heart… It all starts with God and ends with God. I just need to trust from the bottom of my heart. God has this. He has always had this. He conquered sin at the cross so that we could live free of that same sin. I am free. Now I just need to believe it.

Don’t try to figure out everything on your own… I’m not sure where this journey will take me. I’d like to think it will take me straight to slim and beautiful but I know that God has far more in store for me than transient things such as these. There is a far bigger spiritual lesson to learn, one that I can not even begin to imagine. But I don’t need to figure it all out now. I am taking that first step at the bottom of the mountain. I do not know where it will lead me, and I know I have an uphill struggle ahead of me. But God has this. He knows the perils and upsets and difficulties that lie ahead. He has already figured out how I will conquer them. I just need to trust.

Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go… I love this, particularly when applied to food. There are so many temptations, so many areas in which I will fall. But there is a solution to keeping on track. Listen to God, whatever I am doing (eating, shopping, cooking) and everywhere I go (church, out with friends, at home with family). All those difficult situations around food where to say no would be rude, or to say yes would destroy my health. How to I discern which is which? I must listen for God’s still quiet voice to tell me. He has the answer to every temptation, in every situation and in every place I go. He has the answer.

He’s the one who will keep you on track… For the past three decades I have tried and failed countless times to keep on the right track eating wise. I have such a string of failures behind me, I wonder how I can even try again…can my wearied body take any more failure? Now I understand. I have always tried to do it in my own strength. Now I realise that I was never meant to do this alone. It is God who will keep me on track. Not my rather weak self will, but God. Not my ability to say no, but God. Not the rule of any addiction I might have, but God. It’s God. And it always has been. He’s got this.

Trust. Listen. Succeed.

Running to God

Run to God! Run from evil!

Your body will glow with health,

Your very bones will vibrate with life!

Honour God with everything you own.

Proverbs 3 v 5-12

Run to God.. Running suggests speed. It is an instruction… to run towards God, means turning away from anything else.

Run from evil... For me, food is evil. But food is also essential. I need to run away from the evil part. I need to put food in its appropriate place, and run away from food when it is not within those parameters.

Your body will glow with health… The inference is that it is God from whom health comes. I want to glow with health. When is food evil for me? When do I need to run away from it? My body right now does not glow with health. It is large and flabby, pale and lacking nutrition. It is ugly because, whether I like it or not, I have been running towards food and towards evil for my entire life. I need to see it for what it is. Evil is ugly by its very nature.

Your very bones will vibrate with life… I love this phrase! The idea that my bones will vibrate with life is wonderful. As my weight has increased over the past couple of decades, my energy levels have decreased. The weight of the fat on my bones has been suffocating for them. Nothing about me vibrates with life.

Honour God with everything you own… When I was born, the only thing I had which was my own was my body. This incredible intricate machine which God created just for me is the one thing I have complete control over how I use it. Today, I pledge that I will honour God with my body, and everything I put in it.

Run! Honour! Glow! Vibrate with Life!

The Beginnings…

Start with God – the first step in learning is bowing down to God

Proverbs 1v7 (Message)

For such a small verse, there sure is a lot to get from it.

Start… I need to begin, just begin. For a journey to be completed, it first needs to be begun.

Start with God… I need to begin with God, not alone, not with some weight-loss organisation, but alone with God.

First step… the first step means beginning. It means taking that first step; taking that first step with God

Learning… Weight loss, real long term weight loss needs learning and requires a re-education by the individual. But in order to sieve the truth from the rubbish, I must start and take my first step with God.

Bowing… To God. I need to get myself into submission to God

Starting; Stepping; Learning; Bowing

Handing the Fat to God

This week I am handing this all over to God.

I have fought doing this for so long.  I actually don’t want to even think of God and weight loss in the same sentence.  I don’t want to feel responsible before the God I adore, and then feel I have let Him down when I inevitably fail

Somehow, having God in the equation means failure isn’t an option; laughing it off isn’t an option; pretending it doesn’t matter isn’t an option. 

So from this day forth I am going to hand this area over to God and let Him become Lord over every part of my life not just the areas I don’t struggle in.  It is a matter of self-control, one of the fruits of the Spirit, who I believe lives in me.

God has already done the work.

He has gifted me with the tools and His Encourager.  I now just have to put in the work. 

Failure is not an option because God is not in the business of failing those who love Him. 

A Surprising Side of Fasting

A surprising side of fasting

I have just finished a fast of 2 weeks.

I’m not entirely sure why I felt this intense need to fast, but the thought wouldn’t go away until I did.

At the start, I had a head ache, and I really thought I’d last no time at all. I juiced and drank water, but did not allow myself any solids at all.

I managed a whole 14 days! I couldn’t believe it. I was blown away by how easy it was and how well I felt.

Suddenly food wasn’t the be all and end all of my days. In fact, it featured…. not at all!

I slept better…

I had more energy…

I felt calm and happy…

And I came to the realisation that I was not addicted to food.

At least not physically.

But I do rely on it more than I ought emotionally and psychologically.

Having been away from this blog for a while, I feel like God is starting to move in this area of my life.

And I want to document it.

He has been taking me through His word, and I have been learning about God’s view on eating. I give it a bigger place in my life than I should, and this needs to change.

The last two weeks of fasting have shown me that I can have control over my eating.

Suddenly a world of possibilities has opened up…