IN IT FOR LIFE

 dated FEB 2015

Months ago I started a new way of eating to gain my health back.  The previous year I had squandered my health with excuses.  Instead of me being in control I allowed circumstances to be in control.  So shortly after Christmas I looked at myself with open eyes and open heart. I had gain much weight and had grown into clothes that I never thought I would wear. I went cold turkey on several things in my eating habits, sugar, flour and pasta.  It is so like me to just "do it".  I am one that it may take a while to get to the point of change but once I am to that point, there is no playing with the piper.

 

I had done this years ago when I lived with Luella and had great success but this time there was no Luella.  There was no one who had a healthy cooked meal sitting on the table when I got home from work.  There was no Luella helping with healthy ideas and yes even supply.  So I prayed and asked God to give me some guidance, some help.  I started seeing this FB Page popping up called "Trim Healthy Mamas" and began to follow it.  I am not a "diet" person.  Diets are for people who want a temporary fix with the intent to return to what was, once they got what they wanted.  This THM seemed different. I did some reading on the sisters who own the THM and noticed a friend who was following the FB Page begin to change.  I begin to understand these sisters "lived" this way 24-7.  It wasn't a FAD they were following.  It was a lifestyle they lived.  So......I bought the book.  I was looking for a "lifestyle change" something that would last and be there 24-7.  New ways of eating were introduced to me.  Understanding of where I was in life and my body chemistry begin to make sense as to "why" I could not do what I did 20 years ago. And it is working ... 60 pounds released from this body and more to be removed in time.  Have I arrived?  Absolutely not!  But I have achieved more than weight loss. I have begun to take back what is mine and become responsible for what God has given to me...LIFE.

 

So I started following a couple THM FB sites that are there to encourage others with ADMIN's who give freely of their time to answer questions and help others along this journey to HEALTH.  And I began to notice something....some people are in 24-7 and get it.  It is not a "diet" to just get something and go back and it is a "process" not a quick fix.  Others who have not surrendered to the 24-7 lifestyle and the "process" get upset and frustrated and want to bail out. It is not what they "expected".. the results are not "instant" and it is a little bit of work with a "thought process".  And they make me think ..........

 

I remember years ago when working at CBN and hearing about the man who owned Playboy. He had been in a really bad accident and was paralyzed.  He apparently had come to the Lord and was changing his life.  BUT ... there was one problem.  He was expecting that quick fix and that GOD would heal him and get him out of the wheel chair .. but it did not happen.  In anger because God did not work as he thought God should .. he returned to his lifestyle and determined to make the magazine worse than what it ever had been.  Of course I do not buy the magazine so I do not know if what it was before was mild to what it was after his decision to return to the old man ... to me it was BAD to begin with so how could it be BADDER :)

 

As I compare the two - in the natural and in the spiritual .. this makes me think .. of those who come to Jesus for that quick fix. I fear too many people come with lofty ideas of how their life will and should change after turning it all over to Jesus.  They come with "reserves" in their heart thinking that maybe Jesus can just help them out of where they are .. that once back on their feet they can just return to what was.  Jesus is only quick fix .. until things get better.  They know they are in need of change but they have not decided that it is a 24-7  LIFESTYLE change.  They see things working in other lives and they want what they "see" but they do not understand that what they see is just "surface" .. that underneath is being laid a Foundation that when the Winds of Adversity in LIFE come .. they will not be shaken because of their FOUNDATION.

 

How is this Foundation laid?  A foundation is laid with "purpose".  A foundation is laid with the understanding that it is what holds up the rest of the house and keeps it level.  I see towns where tornados rip through and everything is blown away .. but the foundation.  That foundation is still there for them to BUILD UPON AGAIN.  It seems they have lost everything .. but the FOUNDATION is still there waiting for them to rebuild. 

 

When I came to Jesus I made a covenant with God.  I only asked Him to show His Presence in my life by releasing me from the bondage of smoking.  I had started back to church and tried to quit smoking but I couldn't. I chewed gum, ate candy, whatever but still smoking.  And I felt like a hypocrite going to church and coming out and lighting up.  But it was what it was until .. see going to church began to open my eyes and heart to who God was. I wasn't there yet but I was learning.  I hear the old saying .. the church is full of hypocrite's and that is correct "to a point". But that is another rabbit trail for another  time.  So I asked Him to show Himself true in my life by taking away my desire.  I told Him I accepted everything I heard and was receiving His Truth by Faith and that I received what Jesus did on the Cross by Faith and accepted His death for my death.  I just accepted His Truth by Faith and I wanted to know His Presence in a tangible way.  Lot of religious folk would say that is not Faith .. but you know what .. GOD showed up and did exactly what my heart needed, to know His tangible Presence in my life.  He totally delivered me from cigarettes that day. I had a new pack I had just opened and I crumbled it up and threw it away and that was May 9th 1979.  Wow .. someone is getting OLDER!

 

But that was not my Covenant.  My Covenant was this .. "God, if You truly are who You say You are .. and You have truly come into my heart and life and become my Savior ... I will live for You 100%.  I lived my life 100% for the devil and now I will live for You 100%"

 

One thing I have learnt through the years is GOD is not afraid of us ... GOD wants to and will meet us right where we are .. and GOD truly see's our heart and our motives.  GOD knows what is real and what is not real.

 

I wasn't asking for any conditions on His part .. He had already done His Part.  And I knew this was a LIFETIME decision.  When I started to go back to church and then got Saved someone said to me .. "oh this will last about 5 months" .. well .. 7 years later that person saw it truly was a LIFETIME commitment and gave their heart to Jesus.

 

I believe in the Blessings of GOD .. I believe He wants us to be the Head and not the Tail .. I believe He wants to Give us ALL GOOD THINGS .. I believe we fall short in living out the Blessings in this LIFE because of our Un-belief and our not walking out salvation and our not speaking forth His Word in our Lives and our NOT DOING ..

 

BUT ... if we see coming to Jesus to is only about  "get what we want" or "get out of a pickle" or "get, get, get" .. then we miss what salvation is and we really have not come to Jesus. And just like the man who was delivered of the demons and he swept his house clean but did not fill his house with the things of GOD .. the demons came back and saw the "empty Clean" house and when and got more demons and the state of his  house was worse than what it was to begin with.  (and that is another rabbit trail for another time)

 

So today ... Look to Jesus ... not for what you can "get" .. this World's Way of thinking is all about "What can I get" .. God's Kingdom is all about "what can I GIVE" ...

 

For GOD .. so LOVED the WORLD .. that He .. GAVE ... that He GAVE ... that He GAVE .. (worth repeating 100 times )

 

I might not "get" everything in THIS LIFE .. that I want .. but I am so GLAD that I will not GET WHAT I DESERVE when I pass from this Life to Eternal Life with Jesus in Heaven.