Day 66
Fight Head to Heart
Faith makes all things possible... love makes all
things easy.[i]
Dwight L. Moody
~~~
|
W
|
e must not battle the enemy’s ploys
using our own powers of strength or wit. The advice a Godly coach might give is
this: “Don’t fight temptation head to head, fight it head to heart.”
This is because God’s
love indwells our hearts with Holy Spirit fueled strength so that we are
empowered to resist temptation. When, through abiding and obeying, we find that
sweet spot of being loved by God and showing His love to others, obedience
becomes not only possible but easy, not in the sense that no effort or
sacrifice is involved, but because of the precious result of being of one mind
and heart with our Lord.
Most people eat for
comfort, and that's why so many of us are overweight. Losing weight God's
way is more difficult—and more gratifying—than just going on a diet and avoiding
carbs or counting calories. When we lose weight in those ways we may find a
magic "in the groove" place where things go well and the discipline
becomes, if not easy, at least possible. There is always a misconception that
this sort of change is permanent, but it rarely is. Whenever we receive heart
blows, our “any port in a storm” survival strategies will probably cause us to
fall back to old habits that at least provided some in-the-moment comfort.
Apart from God, the alternative to overeating is to hold to our weight loss
strategies as we would to a lifeline, sometimes at the cost of the welfare of
those around us. The enemy always urges us to put our own interests in first
place, but the Lord leads us a better way as we exchange the “law” of diet
plans for moment-by-moment obedience to Him.
Sometimes, other
people get in our way. It’s tempting to believe that if we didn’t have other
human beings who need our labor and sacrifice, that losing weight would be
easier. And when we overeat in the wake of some heart hurt, it's easy to blame
others for our sin. The Lord bids us to bring our heartaches to Him rather
than slapping a temporary bandage of food onto a wound that will not truly heal
apart from the Lord.
God calls us to
community with others. We are not to prioritize our own needs, set boundaries,
or isolate ourselves. We are to follow Jesus' example and count the heartaches
borne by others as our own, bearing one another's burdens. God speaks a
message directly to our hearts:
Don’t "settle."
Don't say, "Well, I can't do anything about this situation, I've just got
it to live with it." Love others with God’s love. Stand with drawn sword
to protect the tender hearts of the ones you love, the inward being that has
not been tainted by avarice, stubbornness, and hard-heartedness. Respond to the
good within those around you as if it were the whole person, and pray diligently
for cleansing of that which is not of the Lord. Help your loved ones to
redirect the survival strategy of attempting to please you toward the eternal
strategy of pleasing God.
Resignation threatens
when we don't believe we can do anything to elicit change either in others or
ourselves. We mustn't forget the Lord! His power and strength will
succeed where we have failed.
Pray: Once again, Father, I place my trust in You
for my weight, my health, my loved ones, and all my circumstances. Help me
recognize the strategies You are using to nudge me along the path of Your will,
and to cooperate with You and not fight against You. Teach me to love others
with Your love, but Lord, let me comprehend more of Your love for me so I have
it to show to others. In Jesus’ name, amen.
~~~
Make
love your aim…
1 Corinthians 14:1 RSV
[i]
Dwight L. Moody. AZ Quotes. Retrieved September 30, 2015 from http://www.azquotes.com/author/10304-Dwight_L_Moody
No comments:
Post a Comment