Week 3 - Day 5
Chapter 9 - But Exercise Makes Me Want to Cry
Yeah, I didn't want to read this chapter either...but I did and gained new insight into exercise, specifically making the discipline of exercise an act of being obedient to God.
pg. 89 Every day I asked God to give me strength to stick with it this time...The more I made running about spiritual growth and discipline, the less I focused on the weight. Each pound lost was not a quest to get skinny bu evidence of obedience to God.
pg 91 I can either be loyal to honoring the Lord with my body or loyal to my cravings, desires, and many excuses for not exercising.
1Corinthians 6:19-20 Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.
This verse screams MEMORY VERSE!!!
Monday, October 31, 2011
Made to Crave: Week 3 - Day 4
Week 3 - Day 4
pg 81 Define your week by obedience, not by a number on the scale.
I think this is a very important concept to remember throughout a weightloss journey. The scale provides a number, it gives us a concrete result - how much our body weighs at that moment in time. If we are trying to lose weight, then obviously we want that number to go down. But defining our success only by that number is dangerous. Expecially if we are wieghing ourselves every week. There will be weeks that you do everything right and do not see the scale move in the direction you want it to. Therefore, do not define your ongoing success by the scale only. Use the scale only to track progress to your ideal weight.
Your weekly, and even daily successes -or victories should not be defined by the scale but instead by obedience. If you are on a weight loss journey then you have "a plan". Your plan is how you going to lose weight, what you will eat or not eat, when and how much you will exercise, identifying your stumbling blocks, etc.
If you have a plan and obediently follow it, you will lose weight. The key to the measurement of success for your plan is obedience. If you do not lose weight, but are following the plan obediently, then you have to reevaluate your plan.
pg 81 Define your week by obedience, not by a number on the scale.
I think this is a very important concept to remember throughout a weightloss journey. The scale provides a number, it gives us a concrete result - how much our body weighs at that moment in time. If we are trying to lose weight, then obviously we want that number to go down. But defining our success only by that number is dangerous. Expecially if we are wieghing ourselves every week. There will be weeks that you do everything right and do not see the scale move in the direction you want it to. Therefore, do not define your ongoing success by the scale only. Use the scale only to track progress to your ideal weight.
Your weekly, and even daily successes -or victories should not be defined by the scale but instead by obedience. If you are on a weight loss journey then you have "a plan". Your plan is how you going to lose weight, what you will eat or not eat, when and how much you will exercise, identifying your stumbling blocks, etc.
If you have a plan and obediently follow it, you will lose weight. The key to the measurement of success for your plan is obedience. If you do not lose weight, but are following the plan obediently, then you have to reevaluate your plan.
Made to Crave: Week 3 - Day 3
Week 3 - Day 3
Chapter 8 - Making Peace with the Realities of My Body
Here are some key points from the chapter that jumped off the page and whacked me upside the head!
pg 81 Define your week by obedience, not by a number of the scale.
pg 82 Yes, eating healthy and exercising get our bodies into better shape, but we are never supposed to get the satisfaction our souls desire from our looks...The only true satisfaction we can seek is the satisfaction of being obedient to the Lord.
pg 83 if I allowed my brain to park in a place of dissatisfaction about any part of my body, it would give Satan just enough room to move in with his lie that strips me of motivation.
Do you see the links to your success yet? Seeking the satisfaction of being obedient to the Lord will benefit you spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically. Focusing on yourself, in any way negatively, only allows Satan in. Your level of motivation and your success are possible only when you are focused on getting closer to God.
Chapter 8 - Making Peace with the Realities of My Body
Here are some key points from the chapter that jumped off the page and whacked me upside the head!
pg 81 Define your week by obedience, not by a number of the scale.
pg 82 Yes, eating healthy and exercising get our bodies into better shape, but we are never supposed to get the satisfaction our souls desire from our looks...The only true satisfaction we can seek is the satisfaction of being obedient to the Lord.
pg 83 if I allowed my brain to park in a place of dissatisfaction about any part of my body, it would give Satan just enough room to move in with his lie that strips me of motivation.
Do you see the links to your success yet? Seeking the satisfaction of being obedient to the Lord will benefit you spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically. Focusing on yourself, in any way negatively, only allows Satan in. Your level of motivation and your success are possible only when you are focused on getting closer to God.
Made to Crave: Week 3 - Day 2
Week 3 - Day 2
Workbook - I'm Not Defined by the Numbers
2Peter1:3-8 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. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
pg 68 It is through biblical promises that we find the courage to deny unhealthy desires...Getting healthy is not just about faith, goodness, and knowledge. We have to add to that foundation by choosing to be self-controlled and choosing to persevere even when the journey gets really hard.
Look at the phrase "if you possess these qualities in increasing measure". These qualities are like stepping stones. For example, you can't get to perseverance without first having self-control. These stepping stones are a model for your Christian life. The first step is faith, which is your faith in salvation. The faith you have when you are saved. As you grow in your faith and as a Christian your faith leads to goodness - or in the NLT 'moral excellence". You begin to live a life that turns away from sin and turns to God.
As you live a godly life you are continuing to grow as a Christian and gaining knowledge, you are getting to know God better. This knowledge leads to self-control, you are increasingly able to have discipline over temptations and desires. Increased self-control gives you the ability to have greater perseverance - to keep going no matter how hard it gets.
Godliness is your godly character, you are seeing the fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life.
Brotherly love is the love you feel for other Christians, you love them as your family.
And finally, love - the NLT says it this way "and finally you will grow to have genuine love for everyone."
If you are not at that final step, having genuine love for everyone (yes, that would be every single person in the world, even the worst of the worst), then you need to back down those steps and find out what step you are on in your Christian life and keep working on moving up. If you don't continue to grow as a Christian you will become consumed with yourself. A failure to grow means we have forgotten what God did for us. Instead, we want to grow further away from our old life and closer to God.
Workbook - I'm Not Defined by the Numbers
2Peter1:3-8 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. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
pg 68 It is through biblical promises that we find the courage to deny unhealthy desires...Getting healthy is not just about faith, goodness, and knowledge. We have to add to that foundation by choosing to be self-controlled and choosing to persevere even when the journey gets really hard.
Look at the phrase "if you possess these qualities in increasing measure". These qualities are like stepping stones. For example, you can't get to perseverance without first having self-control. These stepping stones are a model for your Christian life. The first step is faith, which is your faith in salvation. The faith you have when you are saved. As you grow in your faith and as a Christian your faith leads to goodness - or in the NLT 'moral excellence". You begin to live a life that turns away from sin and turns to God.
As you live a godly life you are continuing to grow as a Christian and gaining knowledge, you are getting to know God better. This knowledge leads to self-control, you are increasingly able to have discipline over temptations and desires. Increased self-control gives you the ability to have greater perseverance - to keep going no matter how hard it gets.
Godliness is your godly character, you are seeing the fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life.
Brotherly love is the love you feel for other Christians, you love them as your family.
And finally, love - the NLT says it this way "and finally you will grow to have genuine love for everyone."
If you are not at that final step, having genuine love for everyone (yes, that would be every single person in the world, even the worst of the worst), then you need to back down those steps and find out what step you are on in your Christian life and keep working on moving up. If you don't continue to grow as a Christian you will become consumed with yourself. A failure to grow means we have forgotten what God did for us. Instead, we want to grow further away from our old life and closer to God.
Made to Crave: Week 3 - Day 1
Week 3 - Day 1
Chapter 7 - I'm Not Defined by the Numbers
This chapter has a basic and simple message...
pg 74 We can be victorious. We can step on the scale and accept the numbers for what they are - an indication of how much our body weighs - and not an indication of our worth.
We have to place our confidence in God and not in our self-image. If you have a poor self-image, then get closer to God and it will improve. If you let comments and remarks affect you, then learn to ignore them...how?
2Corinthians 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Every comment or remark that comes your way is an opportunity to grow closer to God or further away from God. We grow away from God by allowing the remarks to hurt us and affect our self-image. But if we want to grow closer to God, then ask that comment or remark... pg 75 "Are you true? Are you beneficial? Are you necessary?" And if the answer is no, then we don't open the door of our heart. We make the choice to walk away from the comment and all the negative thoughts it could harvest if we let it in.
Fantastic advice!
Chapter 7 - I'm Not Defined by the Numbers
This chapter has a basic and simple message...
pg 74 We can be victorious. We can step on the scale and accept the numbers for what they are - an indication of how much our body weighs - and not an indication of our worth.
We have to place our confidence in God and not in our self-image. If you have a poor self-image, then get closer to God and it will improve. If you let comments and remarks affect you, then learn to ignore them...how?
2Corinthians 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Every comment or remark that comes your way is an opportunity to grow closer to God or further away from God. We grow away from God by allowing the remarks to hurt us and affect our self-image. But if we want to grow closer to God, then ask that comment or remark... pg 75 "Are you true? Are you beneficial? Are you necessary?" And if the answer is no, then we don't open the door of our heart. We make the choice to walk away from the comment and all the negative thoughts it could harvest if we let it in.
Fantastic advice!
Memory Monday
Just a quick check to see how much work I still need to do on last week's verses...
2Corinthians 10:23
Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial.
Everything is permissible, but not everything is constructive.
Psalm 5:3,8
Listen to my voice in the morning Lord.
Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.
Lead me in the right path, O Lord,
or my enemies will conquer me.
Tell me clearly what to do,O Lord.
and show methe path to take and which way to turn.
Proverbs 16:3
Commit your actions to the Lord
and your plans will succeed.
Yikes, need to work on that Psalm verse!
The next verses were also used in the Made to Crave book in Chapter 6 and are about allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us so that we can avoid temptations. When we let the Holy Spirit do that then we are rewarded with the fruit of the spirit.
Galatians 5:16
So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves.
Galatians 5:22-23
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives:
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
There is no law against these things.
About Memory Monday
I originally found Memory Monday with Joanne at The Simple Wife. The idea is to memorize a verse during the week and come back to her blog on Mondays to comment about it. That's it, nothing fancy, just simply an encouragement and reminder to memorize scripture for yourself. Please join in Memory Monday as a way to be blessed by hiding God's Word in your heart. And also join me in prayer for Joanne as she continues to recover from the stroke she had in January.
About Siesta Scripture Memory Team
This is another program to encourage us to memorize scripture and is hosted by Beth Moore over on her blog Living Proof Ministries Blog. This program is set up so that each person who wants to join the Siesta Scripture Memory Team will memorize two verses a month for all of 2011 and post a comment on the LPM blog on the 1st and the 15th of the month. If you do that all year you get to attend a Celebration with her and the SSMT next January! I so want to do that, don't you?
2Corinthians 10:23
Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial.
Everything is permissible, but not everything is constructive.
Psalm 5:3,8
Listen to my voice in the morning Lord.
Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.
Lead me in the right path, O Lord,
or my enemies will conquer me.
Tell me clearly what to do,
and show me
Proverbs 16:3
Commit your actions to the Lord
and your plans will succeed.
Yikes, need to work on that Psalm verse!
The next verses were also used in the Made to Crave book in Chapter 6 and are about allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us so that we can avoid temptations. When we let the Holy Spirit do that then we are rewarded with the fruit of the spirit.
Galatians 5:16
So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves.
Galatians 5:22-23
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives:
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
There is no law against these things.
About Memory Monday
I originally found Memory Monday with Joanne at The Simple Wife. The idea is to memorize a verse during the week and come back to her blog on Mondays to comment about it. That's it, nothing fancy, just simply an encouragement and reminder to memorize scripture for yourself. Please join in Memory Monday as a way to be blessed by hiding God's Word in your heart. And also join me in prayer for Joanne as she continues to recover from the stroke she had in January.
About Siesta Scripture Memory Team
This is another program to encourage us to memorize scripture and is hosted by Beth Moore over on her blog Living Proof Ministries Blog. This program is set up so that each person who wants to join the Siesta Scripture Memory Team will memorize two verses a month for all of 2011 and post a comment on the LPM blog on the 1st and the 15th of the month. If you do that all year you get to attend a Celebration with her and the SSMT next January! I so want to do that, don't you?
Monday, October 24, 2011
Made to Crave: Week 2 - Day 6
Week 2 - Day 6
This journey is jam packed full of sacrifices (ah man, now I want a PB&J sandwich)...and now I am so distracted that I can't remember what my point was going to be...
oh yes, the journey to getting closer to God is all about self-sacrifice. And on this particular leg (ugg now I want a chicken leg - just kidding, I never really want chicken!) of the journey the sacrifices are making better food choices and denying yourself certain things that are not in the plan to getting healthy. Thinking about that made this verse comparison jump up off the page with a big flashing neon sign. Here is the key to getting through the perceived suffering of denying yourself with things not on the plan.
First read this familiar verse in NIV
Luke 9:23-25 (NIV) Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?
Now read it again but from The Message translation (a little side note...I just noticed that the standard abbreviation for the Message is 'MSG'. I have never paid much attention to this translation, thinking it was generally not that good (just like I avoid msg because it gives me headaches) but sometimes msg adds flavor! anyone craving chinese food about now? sorry! ok I am done with the food analogies now):
Luke 9:23-25 (MSG)
Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat - I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self.
This journey is jam packed full of sacrifices (ah man, now I want a PB&J sandwich)...and now I am so distracted that I can't remember what my point was going to be...
oh yes, the journey to getting closer to God is all about self-sacrifice. And on this particular leg (ugg now I want a chicken leg - just kidding, I never really want chicken!) of the journey the sacrifices are making better food choices and denying yourself certain things that are not in the plan to getting healthy. Thinking about that made this verse comparison jump up off the page with a big flashing neon sign. Here is the key to getting through the perceived suffering of denying yourself with things not on the plan.
First read this familiar verse in NIV
Luke 9:23-25 (NIV) Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?
Now read it again but from The Message translation (a little side note...I just noticed that the standard abbreviation for the Message is 'MSG'. I have never paid much attention to this translation, thinking it was generally not that good (just like I avoid msg because it gives me headaches) but sometimes msg adds flavor! anyone craving chinese food about now? sorry! ok I am done with the food analogies now):
Luke 9:23-25 (MSG)
Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat - I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self.
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